


Shadows

by Epsilon_Church



Series: Guns for Hire [2]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Blood, Body Dysmorphic Disorder, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Explicit Consent, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Gore, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, PTSD, Parental Abuse, Past Abuse, Past Character Death, Past Torture, SPARTAN Michael J. Caboose, Sexual Tension, Violence, background washnut, fuck you felix, issues with sexuality, one sided chex, past trauma, possible sexual content, pyschogenic voice disorder, sexual content in later chapters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:13:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 24
Words: 24,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23323738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Epsilon_Church/pseuds/Epsilon_Church
Summary: Ever since Carolina was a child her father was in her life, over shadowing her like some kind of ominous omnipresent force but it wasn't until York came stumbling into her life six months ago that she really understood how dark a shadow he was casting over her.Now, knowing somehow less about her childhood and father than she thought she did, Carolina strikes out on her own. With the newfound partnership and allies she's found in the freelancers Carolina is more confident than she's ever been that the world will bend to her will.Unbeknownst to Carolina, however, her father and his latest employee have different ideals on where her life will take her.
Relationships: Agent Carolina/Agent York (Red vs. Blue), Leonard L. Church | AI Program Alpha/Agent Texas | AI Program Beta, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: Guns for Hire [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1660156
Comments: 24
Kudos: 17





	1. A Girl Named Tex

**Author's Note:**

> cw:  
> no cws apply  
> welc

Carolina wasn’t supposed to wake up beside York.

She told herself that there was no possible reason for her to fall asleep in the same bed as York. It would only prove  _ her _ right.

It had been nearly six months since her fath- the  _ Directors  _ treachery had been revealed to her. It had been nearly six months since he abruptly stopped taking her calls. It had been nearly since months since she came back to the hotel with York and found they had to sneak past suddenly highly alert guardsmen who didn't seem as interested as they'd once been with her protection.

And it had been nearly six months since York kind of sort of asked her to be his girlfriend.

Carolina wasn't sure which had changed her perspective on life more; the freelancers and their bunker, York and his affection or the realization that everything she had ever thought about her family was a lie.

She forgave Church - not that he needed to explain himself - for never telling her why he acted the way he did. If she had been in his position she was never sure if there would have been a way that'd she ever be able to broach the subject on her own. Church was still her stupid idiot baby brother.

Even if he was talking about himself in the third person and calling himself Epsilon now.

York snorted in his sleep, drawing Carolinas thoughts away from her brother and his developing affinity for AI based ramblings and long drawn out conversations with no one. She looked down at him, almost subconsciously checking he was still clothed. 

In a weird way, Carolina was worried one of these days she was going to wake up naked next to an equally undressed York.

That'd just make  _ her _ day.

**_Tex._ **

She was in charge here.

Carolina should get used to taking orders and being second best, there was no real reason to compete with her. It shouldn't be a problem. 

Except it kind of was.

Around here, the freelancers scored themselves based off of physical ability and practice in combat. It seemed to be some kind of game to keep themselves sharp and remind themselves that no matter how well they worked together they could always strive to be better as individual contractors. 

_ After all, _ Wash had explained to Carolina,  _ the better you do on the scoreboard the more you get to take solo jobs and the more money you get to keep. _

Texas was the highest score holder on the board which meant that she was sent on the higher paying jobs and she could choose whoever she wanted to take with her. Texas got first dibs on any and all jobs on the job boards and she got to steal anyone's and everyone's job away from them if she so chose. She got to kick people off of high paying jobs for her own gain.

It drove Carolina fucking insane.

Washington, who was still reeling from suddenly getting reinvolved with the freelancers, liked to take things slow but  _ Carolina?  _ **Never** Carolina. Carolina might have made some friends here - Maine, South, CT - but she wasn't fucking around. Carolina was going to hunt down the director - her father - and she was going to get some answers.

_ Also. _

Carolina was going to get on the top of that damn board and she was going to stay there. 

Carolina slid her legs off the bed. She didn't want to do the walk of shame back to where she bunked with CT and South while Tex was up and patrolling around. 

It felt oddly slimey to leave York alone in the room he had once shared with North.  _ What if he woke up and had to face all the bad associations of now having a room all to himself? _

She couldn’t think about that right now.

It wasn't fair to York to leave him without explanation but it also wasn't fair for him to expect her to wait around while Tex was out there, taking all the good jobs.

It was bad enough that she couldn't go alone on jobs, the last thing she wanted was Texas mocking smirk following her from York's room. What if Tex used her assumed relationship with York as another excuse to not take her seriously? No, Carolina couldn’t take that chance. As minimal as it might be.

She did… _ kind of _ like him though.

\--- 

South was less of a morning person than Tucker and Church combined. 

"Good morning."

Carolina set her food tray down across from South.

"Murmpf."

South grunted back.

"She's not here."

CT slid off her helmet as she sat down. Carolina was still adjusting to the full body armour that people tended to sport in the bunker but she found that some of the freelancers she was now bunking with were just as unaccustomed to them as she was. CT wasn't the only one who remembered to take their helmet at the last possible second before eating. 

Carolina was pretty fucking sure that Texas never took her armour off at all.

_ Texas. _

__ “So. It’s that obvious huh?”

CT nodded.

“You always look for her when you sit down.”

_ Maybe Carolina was a little too obvious about her desire to track Texas down... _

"When are you getting your armour fitted?"

Carolina, not realizing she had gotten lost in thought, looked across to CT again.

"Huh?"

"Your armour. When are you getting it fitted?"

Carolina shrugged.

"Whenever  _ Tex _ gets down to booking me with Sigma."

Carolina cocked her head.

“Sigma is… Deltas brother right?”

CT nodded.

"Yeah. Sigmas a little... weird but he knows his stuff."

"I hope he does. If I'm going to have to wait until I get the armour fitted to take higher class jobs with you all it'd better be worth it."

  
  


"Normally is."

Wash, seemingly slinking up out of nowhere, sat down beside Carolina.

"You're just mad you can't go on S class jobs."

"More like Tex class."

South huffed and threw her freshly dyed pink hair back. Carolina had to admit, she looked good with her hair that way.

"You don't see anyone else going on them. Just  _ her. _ "

Carolina huffed.

"So I'm not the only one who's noticed."

"Of course you're not."

South quipped.

"We'd have to be blind to not see it and even then  _ YORK _ can tell."

Carolina had to stop herself from laughing at the implied low blow. It wasn’t  _ funny _ and she was NOT going to laugh at York.

"Tex isn't so bad."

Wash cocked his head as he chewed.

"She just... takes things seriously."

"That's not the problem."

Carolina muttered into her cereal before taking a spoonful.

" **Carolina."**

Tex, seemingly sensing her name in the same way one would expect The Devil or Voldemort to, fucking apparated behind them.

" **Can I have a word?"**


	2. Sigma

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no cws

Texas definition of having a word apparently included walking up two flights of stairs and having Carolina wait outside of a room she did not recognize for 20 minutes.

_ Because of course it did. Why wouldn’t it? _

Carolina, despite her original intent to remain stoic and not give away any sort of emotional reaction to Tex, was having a fair amount of trouble ignoring the persistent beeping of her hip mounted comm. York had clearly woken up.

York: hey lina bean

York: South tells me tex stole you away

York: i didnt get to say good morning :(

Carolina sighed before finally relenting and sending him back a few quick messages.

Carolina: I know, I’m sorry.

Carolina: We’ll eat lunch together alright?

York: ok :)

Carolina, deciding he seemed happy enough with that answer, tucked her phone comm again.

“ **Carolina.”**

Tex, finally deciding it was time to grace Carolina with her presence, poked her head out of the door she had locked herself away in for the past twenty minutes. 

“ **Sigmas ready for you.”**

Carolina straightened herself out and walked through the heavily armoured metal door after Tex. 

When Carolina entered the room, everything seemed to finally click together about where she was and what she was doing here. She was in some kind of armoury! The back wall was lined with various forms of guns and swords and sporting every kind of destructive ammunition one would need to utilize each different kind of weapon on display. The wall across from where the door sat was clearly some kind of work station, bits of armour plating and weaponry littered the metal table and tools for working on and destroying such things were neatly filed away on hooks. 

All in all, it looked like it was trying too hard to distract from the suit of teal - aqua? - armour sitting in the dead centre of the room in a cooling pod clearly meant to keep the armour under strict temperature controls while it was worked on.

A ginger man that Carolina hadn’t noticed slid out from behind the pod, rubbing his bony and scarred hands together. He was tall - ghastly so - and wore a red suit that fit him far too well and seemed out of place in the dirty workshop. If it were not for the welder's goggles nestled on his forehead and thick heavy duty work boots he would have been easily mistaken as a snake in the grass politician.

“Is this her?”

He purred, looking down at Texas. Anyone who could look down at Texas sent immediate red flags down Carolinas spine.

“ **Yes. This is Agent Carolina. Carolina, Sigma. Sigma, Carolina.”**

Tex walked up to Carolina before lowering her voice just enough for only her to hear.

“ **Don’t fuck around with him.”**

Tex, after taking her place in the corner of the room, motioned for Carolina to step closer to Sigma. Carolina, while still uneasy about the strange man's presence, couldn’t help but feel like the armour in the centre of the room was calling for her and found herself stepping towards it rather than Sigma.

“I had to guess on some of your measurements - namely the chest and hands - but I think you’ll find it fits quite well.”

Sigma pressed something on the outside of the pod, making the glass slide back away from the armour with a depressurizing hiss.

Carolina gingerly took the helmet from the armour and slid it over her head. The second it made contact with her neck Carolina knew. This was  _ her _ armour. She felt like she could take on the world in this armour.

Carolina grinned.

“I think I will too.”

\---

Carolina wouldn’t say her armour made her better at things.

But she was better  _ with _ the armour.

Tex had insisted she take the armour out for a spin in the freelancers training floor, make sure everything was fast and secure. It was vitally important she got used to everything before Tex made up her mind on whatever it was she was still waiting to ask of her. Supposedly.

Carolina didn’t care.

She had always been fast - she had run track in high school - but with this armour she felt like she was flying. She could run from one side of the training room to the other in a matter of seconds without crashing into any of the set up training targets or hidden obstacles the course she had selected kept throwing at her. She was unstoppable like this! 

Her hits hit harder, her kicks landed with a satisfying and solid thud and everything she did felt fucking amazing. 

Sure, she had had her doubts when she put it on and felt the armour press against her tightly, but she had long forgotten them by the time York whistled at her from the viewing overlook above the training room floor.

Carolina, skidding to a stop, looked up at him.

“York?”

“Hey! Looking good!”

Carolina straightened herself out and took off her helmet.

“Yeah! I feel good too!”

“Nice! Tex says she’s ready to see you in her office.”

York raised his coffee mug slightly.

“Try not to kill her.”

Carolina made no promises but obediently headed away from the training room and towards Texas’ office.

\---

“ **Carolina.”**

Texas was seated behind her desk. She still hadn’t removed her armour, which, while weird, did make Carolina feel better for not bothering to remove hers. 

“ **Take a seat.”**

Carolina nodded before pulling out a chair across from her and settling down as best as her armour allowed her. The armour might have been comfortable to run in but it certainly didn’t care for criss cross applesauce.

“ **I’ve been hearing rumours that you’re itching to go on an S class job.”**

Carolina nodded.

“Yes.”

**“Well, after what Epsilon shows me of your training room practicing today, I think I might be able to help with that.”**

Carolina couldn’t help but notice that not only had she not been aware of Church being there but also that even Texas had taken to calling him Epsilon.

“Oh?”

Carolina tried to stifle the excitement rising in her voice.

“ **Mmhm.”**

“Whats the catch?”

“ **The catch is that I’m running point on it. The customers… an old friend of sorts.”**

Of course. Because why would Texas not go on the S class job? She was  _ too  _ good not to. Carolina wanted to scream and call her names.

But… if Carolina took this job, she could show off to Tex - and everyone else - that she didn’t need a babysitter and just because she was new here didn’t mean that she was more than capable of handling things on her own.

“ **You in?”**

“Yeah,”

Carolina took her previously removed helmet from her lap and twisted it on.

“I’m in.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> now who could that be dun dun dun


	3. I am a Motherfucking GHOST

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw  
> fake out character death  
> grief

York didn’t even blink when Carolina showed up to their lunch table in full body armour. 

Carolina, who was coming to realize that armour was hardly over dressing around here, was honestly kind of surprised to see York waiting for her in only a t-shirt and jeans. He looked out of place, even if he did seem comfortable.

Maybe Carolina was just too quick to adapt to the armour.

“Hey there Carolina.”

York smiled at her, raising his  _ ‘I <3 New York _ ’ mug slightly as a greeting.

“I  _ can’t _ believe you kept that.”

Carolina set her tray down across from him, shaking her head at his goofy expression. 

York always reserved the table right beside the glass overlook on the training floor. It was an interesting layout to have the lunch area to overlook the place where people would be competing in hand to hand/armed combat but Carolina was getting rather into watching her new found friends duke it out, it had a certain… charm to it.

“Who’s up today?”

Carolina asked him, setting down her helmet.

“Oh no one's fighting but Delta is testing some recovered technology from CHARON. We found some of their old automized weapons a few months ago and he’s been thinking he can get them up and running with Ep- Churchs help.”

Carolina looked down at her neatly wrapped smoked salmon sandwich, for some reason, hearing York refer to Church as Epsilon sent an odd shiver down her spine and into her gullet. It all made everything a little too real.

Shaking that aside, Carolina slid her helmet off and set it down across from York.

“Helmet hair?”

She asked him, trying to shake away her worries by prodding at his natural sense of humour.

“Just a little bit. I think it looks hot on you though.”

York set his coffee down and plucked his own neatly wrapped sandwich from his tray.

“You never quit huh?”

Carolina laughed before unwrapping her sandwich and beginning to eat. 

“It’s part of my charm.”

They ate in silence for a few minutes - between early morning calls to exercises and regular combat simulations against other freelancers, food was a luxury that no one dared waste - before York spoke again.

“Looks like we’ll be working together soon.”

Carolina swallowed and cocked her head.

“Huh?”

“Texas didn’t tell you? Me and South are coming with you on your next job. She  _ did _ tell you you were going to be working on an S class job right? Tell me mentioned that at  _ least. _ ”

Carolina huffed.

“She didn’t mention you-”

**“WATCH IT ASSHOLE!”**

Carolina turned her head to look down at where Delta and Church were working. 

Delta was holding a sniper rifle, one distinctly pointed at Churchs head.

“ _ Apologies.” _

Delta lowered the gun.

“ _ I was just testing the scope.” _

“YEAH, BY POINTING IT AT MY HEAD!”

Church grabbed the sniper rifle away from Delta.

“You’re almost as bad as Caboose!”

“ _ He is rather… interesting.” _

Church nodded.

“I still can’t believe you ASSHOLES made me bring him here!”

“ _ It was only logical to protect your friends. We have no way of knowing whether or not the Director may retaliate by attempting to reach you through your friends!” _

“Yeah well,”

Church huffed.

“I… guess that makes sense.”

_ “I know it does. I thought of it.” _

Carolina snickered before turning back to York.

“At least Church is handling the transition better than Donut.”

“I saw him dusting the floor while crying today.”

York shrugged.

“I think he might just be losing it.”

“I still don’t understand why Wash was so insistent on bringing everyone here.”

“It’s only just in case, until we can be sure that your father isn’t still looking for you. You don’t want a repeat of what happened last time do you?”

Carolina really didn’t. 

Two months after she had cut off her father and Freelancer industries her and York had been patronizing a quaint little coffee shop outside of Washington D.C when a group of armoured men - the same kind that York claimed to have been in his apartment - came crashing in through the door and demanding that Carolina show herself.

It was only through sheer force of luck that York managed to distract them with a well timed window breaking. If North hadn’t taught York how to steal a motorcycle in less time than it takes for someone to realize you’re gone they probably would have been dragged kicking and screaming back to Leonard Churchs front door.

Nobody wanted that.

“Yeah. I guess you’re right.”

“Course I am.”

York took another bite of his sandwich.

“And if I’m being honest I’m getting pretty fond of wine and cheese hour.”

“I don’t think you’re supposed to bring straight bourbon to  _ wine _ and cheese hour.”

“I didn’t hear your drunk ass complaining last time.”

“HELLO, NOT-CHURCH.”

“That’d be Caboose.”

York laughed without looking down.

“ _ Delta.” _

“HELLO CHURCH.”

Carolina turned to watch the large brunette man eagerly thump over to Church and scoop him up into an affectionate hug. 

Caboose had to be at least seven feet tall and somehow - to Sigmas utter bafflement - fit into an old SPARTAN 2 armour suit they had scavenged from a previous raid without any modification. If it wasn’t for him being a complete and utter loose cannon Texas had stated she probably would have tried to get him to work with them as a freelancer himself.

“Caboose-”

Church choked out.

**_“You’resqueezingme-”_ **

“Sorry.”

Caboose gingerly put Church down.

“I brought the boxes you asked for!”

Caboose walked to the door where he had rushed in through and grabbed a box that easily dwarfed Church. He didn’t even seem to require any sort of effort when he scooped it up and barely even noticed as he dropped it down right beside Deltas foot.

“ _ Be careful!” _

Delta snapped at him before opening the box and examining its contents.

Delta pulled a long tube of metal marked in writings he seemed to be having trouble deciphering.

“ _ Hmm. Epsilon, can you see if you can read this?” _

Church shrugged before walking over and taking the tube from him.

“It says it’s some kind of extractor device but I can’t make out what it’s supposed to pull out.”

Caboose excitedly wiggled closer, bumping his hand against the top of the tube.

“Oooh!”

Church yelped in surprise, stepping away from Caboose as the tip of the tube popped out and began to beep.

“ _ Drop it!” _

Delta squeaked.

“I’m trying but it-”

The tube emitted a high pitched wail of a sound and in a matter of seconds, Church was on the floor.

“CHURCH!”

Carolina lept from her seat, barely even registering the distance between them elapsing in a matter of seconds - something she would later attribute to her armour - she  _ had _ to get to him!

When she did skid to a stop beside Church, both Delta and Caboose were crowding his now motionless body.

“Move!”

Carolina cried, shoving both of them aside and grabbing her brother in her arms. Her heart sank when she turned him over to be greeted with a lifeless expression and a thin trail of blood leaking from his lips. 

_ No!  _ Carolina couldn't lose Church! Anyone but Church! He was her baby brother, her stupid, shit eating, cocky, can't-aim-for-shit brother. He was her brother- she- she couldn't  _ lose him.  _ It didn't matter if he was Epsilon now or if he was linked in with an AI chip now! He was her brother! He was her adorable little brother who came and slept on her bed when he had nightmares as a kid, she couldnf bare to lose him.

“He’s not breathing! Get Doc!”

Carolinas world was shattering apart around her.  _ Please _ , she pleaded with a God she'd never considered before,  _ please don't take him. _

“Uh. Guys.”

Carolina stopped her desperate attempts at CPR to look towards the source of Churchs voice.

To her surprise and bewilderment, when she looked at the tube there sat Church… or rather a six inch white hologram of Church. He was sitting on the tube with his legs hanging off of it like he was seated normally on a couch.

“I think I found out what it extracts.”

_ “Son of a bitch…” _

Delta breathed, vocalizing what Carolina could not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> emotions....? in my fanfic????


	4. Carolina

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cws  
> fake out character death  
> break downs

When Carolina was a child, she used to carry Church around under her left arm. She'd only do it when he'd been bothering her or had eaten something that made his tummy hurt because he hated the fuck out of it. Church would never stop complaining about being carried improperly. He was ALL about piggybacks, he wasn't here for this under the arm bullshit.

Carolina had never tried carrying him like this.

Carolina held the tube out in front of her, resting it on the palms of her hands as she walked. She didn't dare close her fingers too tightly around it - what if she snapped it with this new armour strength? She was already scared to move him, let alone risk snapping the tube he seemed to be backed up on.

Holo Church sat on the tube, seemingly unaffected by this new predicament, kicking his legs in an uninterested child like way.

Caboose, who had been trying to feed Church a tiny strawberry for the past ten minutes, was the first to speak on the way to Sigmas office.

"What now?"

" **If anyone's going to know what to do it's Sigma.** "

Texas knocked on the door.

" **Sigma. Open up.** "

"I must have been more connected with the Epsilon chip than I realized,"

Church mused as the door opened.

"I guess I  _ am _ Epsilon now."

Carolina didn't care that he was Epsilon now. He was safe in her hands. 

_ Church was safe. Church was safe. Church was safe.  _

York put his hand on Carolinas back as they walked in the workshop.

"Lina?"

"Not now."

Carolina murmured back. She couldn't afford to break down right now - or ever - she had to keep herself focused on the task ahead. Right now that task was Church.

Sigma was talking about something, Carolina knew that, but she didn't really care. Sure he was fine now but she had just seen her brother - her baby brother - lying lifelessly on the ground. 

York tapped her back to reality.

"Lina?"

Carolina looked up at Sigma and Texas. Texas looked furious.

" **You didn't even think to TELL me this?"**

"You didn't ask."

Sigma waved his hand dismissively before walking over to Carolina.

"As I was telling Agent Texas, all of your armour is equipped with an AI port so as to best manage your suits upgrades - something Texas seems to see as essential to mention despite us never having an AI before - if you wanted to I could burn Epsilon to an old chip and introduce him to your armours system."

" _ Why didn't you mention this before?" _

Delta snaps at him. In all honesty, Carolina had forgotten he was there. She had barely even noticed when York and Texas had rushed down to the training room, let alone that Delta and Caboose had opted to follow them.

" _ Why do you always have to be so mysterious?" _

"As I was telling Agent Texas. It didn't come up."

"You want to burn me to another chip? Why don't we just take the chip from my neck and let me reintegrate?"

Church jumped off of the tube and walked/floated over to Sigma.

"That works."

Sigma shrugged.

Carolina set the tube down on a nearby bench.

"I can go and grab i-"

"I can retrieve the chip from Churchs body myself, there is no need for that."

Sigma turned to her.

"Perhaps you would be better off concerning yourself with other things Agent Carolina."

"You're a real bag of dicks huh?"

Church remarked to seemingly no one in particular.

"Sentient queef."

Carolina wanted to throttle Sigma but York, seemingly sensing her anger, put his hand on her back.

"Sigmas got this, Lina. Why don't we just hear out?"

Carolina huffed but didn't argue. 

\---

York led her back to his room. 

"Why are you taking me to your room, York? I'm not in the mood for-"

York pushed her into the empty room and closed the door behind him, bolting it with one quick motion. 

"Sit."

He patted the bed once before flopping down in it.

Carolina hesitated for a few moments before doing so.

"What are you-?

York pulled her head down onto his lap and gingerly twisted off her helmet - she had no recollection of putting it back on. 

"York-"

She began.

"Lina."

Something about Yorks tone struck a nerve in Carolina and in a matter of seconds she found herself clinging to his jeans and burying her face in his lap. She hadn't realized she was upset until the moment she burst out sobbing.

Carolina, after finally forcing the tears back into her eyes, tore off the suddenly much too tight chest armour - something that was easier said than done - and returned to Yorks arms.

York didn't hesitate to squeeze her tightly and pull the both of them down into a more comfortable position on the bed. Instead of saying anything about her still on armour pants York simply pulled her face against his chest and squeezed her as she whimpered.

"It's okay, Lina."

York murmured as he buried his face in her hair.

"Just let it out."

Carolina would never have admitted it outside of the confines of Yorks secure room but she probably cried more that day than she'd ever cried in her whole life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fuck yall feelings


	5. Hey Sis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw  
> fake out death

Carolina woke up in Yorks bed. 

She had no recollection of falling asleep - or eating supper - but she must have curled up against York and dozed off at  _ some _ point because her mouth tasted like she had been snoring into a sweaty t-shirt for the past ten hours.

"Hey, Lina."

York shifted so as to better look at her.

"Feel like getting up now?"

Carolina sat up and shuffled to the side of the bed. It was only then that she realized she'd never removed her lower armour and Yorks rubbing at his sore thighs and crotch was probably due to how she had stuffed one of her legs between his in her sleep.

Not sexy.

"How're you feeling?"

York sat up beside her, placing his hand on her shoulder.

"Better?"

Carolina nodded.

“Yeah.”

“Good because I’m fucking starving. You made me miss supper last night and breakfast starts in twenty.”

York stood up and walked over to the closet. He made it all the way through the process of choosing some clothes to wear and getting ready to pull off his shirt before seemingly remembering that Carolina was still sitting comfortably on his bed. 

“You uh- going to leave?”

York looked at her curiously.

“No.”

Carolina chirped, raising her eyebrow at him. 

“Okay.”

\----

Carolina took her seat beside Wash at their normal breakfast table, careful to not look too hard at Texas - since when did she eat with them? - or acknowledge York's bashful fluttering around her. 

It wasn’t like they’d done anything, York was just easily embarrassed!

_ Not that he had anything to be embarrassed about. _

“ **Carolina. I didn’t see you at supper.”**

Texas, always the first to speak and first to make people uncomfortable, opened the conversation up with a pointed statement.

“Oh yeah,”

York began, speaking over whatever Carolina might have tried to make up.

“She was with me.”

“Went for a jog.”

Carolina added quickly, spotting CTs raised eyebrow.

“Yup!”

York nodded a little too enthusiastically.

“Just be glad that Tuckers’ not around, he’d have a field day with that.”

South yawned.

“He would.”

Wash nodded.

“ **Just means we’ll all have to catch up later.”**

Texas cut the conversation short. Carolina wasn’t even sure if she meant to be so off putting but it rubbed her the wrong fucking way.

“Catch up?”

South leaned forward slightly.

“What do we need to catch up on?”

“ **You, York, Carolina and I are going to be working retrieval on our next job. It’s only fair that we properly debrief after Carolina and I meet up with Sigma.”**

Carolina huffed. Why did she always have to act so… _ Texas.  _

“Right.”

Carolina finished her food as fast as she could - she couldn’t stand the way Texas looked at her through her visor - and stood up. She had to at least try and get to Sigmas office before Texas did. It was  _ her  _ brother after all.

As Carolina began to walk towards the stairs she couldn’t help but overhear York asking Wash whether or not he knew how to get armour indentations out of your mattress.

\---

When Carolina finally got in Sigmas office, Church was already waiting for her. 

Church didn’t seem to be able to make himself any taller than a few inches but he was seemingly much more in control of his form and how he moved around the room than he had been the last time Carolina saw him. Carolina was actually kind of relieved to see him wandering around in his normal hoodie and jeans attire, it made him feel much more relaxing to be around somehow.

“You’re getting the hand of projection.”

Sigma mused from the seat in front of his work bench.

“How’s the helmet storage treating you?”

“It’d be better if I had access to a full suit. Feels,”

Church pressed his fists against the base of his back and stretched backwards.

_ “Cramped _ in here.”

“You will,”

Sigma glanced over to Carolina and Texas.

“Likely much sooner than you think.”

“Oh?”

Church turned to look at Carolina.

“Carolina!”

He waved at her. He clearly had a fair amount of things he wanted to say but Sigma seemed to have other plans, he had pulled Churchs AI chip from the spare armour helmet he had been latched on to before Church had even gotten to finish the follow through of his wave.

“Hey!”

Carolina quipped at him, snatching Churchs chip away from him.

“Don’t worry about it, he’s not a USB, not hitting eject before you pull him isn’t going to kill him.”

Sigma seemed remarkably unfazed for someone who was on the receiving end of two armoured womens angry glares.

“What can I help you two with?”

**“Just tell her what you told me.”**

Texas walked over to the workbench where the spare helmet was resting.

“As I told Agent Texas last night, all of your armour suits are based off of old SPARTAN project technology thus you are all capable of carrying a smart AI such as the Epsilon chip program.”

“Church. His name is Church.”

Carolina didn’t care for the way people talked about him. It made her feel…  _ icky. _

“Not _anymore_. As we both came to realize last night, the Epsilon chip that your brother was integrated with was... _mostly_ empty of personality matrices, thus when your brother was using said chip to help your father he became integral to the chip and became a poor man's personality brain scan of himself. Where Epsilon may be Church backed up in AI form it stands to reason that there _was_ once an Alpha - _Church himself_ \- to be backed up onto said AI chip that likely died or was overridden the longer the Epsilon Church was present in his head.”

Sigma waved his hands as he talked. He seemed to think all this was very fascinating.

Carolina looked at the chip. A part of her was a little worried about that  _ mostly. _

“For all scientific purposes, your brother died the moment he was implanted with the chip. What you have there is just a memory of him.”

Sigma shrugged before walking over to her.

“Now - as Agent Texas is no doubt waiting for me to explain - you can link your helmets interface with your brother by inserting that chip into your helmets AI port.”

“What doe-”

“He will also probably be kind of pissed off if you leave him out without any way of manifesting himself for too long.”

Sigma had a point about that.

Carolina, despite her many complaints, didn’t want to argue with Church - Epsilon - right now and slid the chip into the slot on the back of her helmet. 

“What now?”

She looked at Sigma.

“Just wait. He’s probably not used to having so much extra computing space.”

“ **_Apparently_ ** **Sigma** **_also_ ** **forgot to mention our suits are basically a computer paradise.”**

“Of course he d-”

Carolina cut herself off when she heard a beep at the back of her head and a familiar stretching sound.

“Hey sis,”

Epsilon didn’t need to act like he wasn’t amused, Carolina knew he was.

“Didya miss me?”

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fuck u sigma


	6. Wyoming

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no cws

Texas, having given Church and Carolina mere minutes to recover, had marched Carolina to her office and told her to stay put while she grabbed South and York. 

“She is… intense.”

Epsilon mused in Carolinas ear after staying silent for most of the trip there and the past ten minutes of lounging around uselessly.

“She’s just your type.”

Carolina purred.

“Shut _ up- _ ”

Of all the little things to have kept from Church, Epsilon's voice tripping into the seventh dimension when he was was possibly one of the funniest to preserve.

Carolina snorted.

“You’re just mad that I’m right.”

“It’s...  _ kinda hot. _ ”

Epsilon whimpered finally, seemingly realizing he was lost.

“ **In here.”**

Texas pushed open the door to her office.

“No shit in here.…”

South muttered under her breath as she pulled out a chair beside Carolina. 

“Hey.”

She gave Carolina a quick nod of her helmet.

“Hey.”

Carolina returned the nod.

“Hey.”

Church, not enjoying being left out, replied to her.

“Hey Lina!”

York slapped Carolinas back affectionately.

“Guess Tex got you first.”

Carolina turned to look at York, blinking in surprise when she found herself looking at her own reflection in his helmets visor.

“Yeah,”

York laughed through the voice filter.

“Tex said we’d be leaving soon and I don’t want to be caught unprepared again. Last time that happened I wound up wandering through Canadain snow in my jeans.”

Epsilon made a noise that Carolina couldn’t quite make out. It sounded like he was talking to someone but didn’t want her to hear.

“Yeah. Fair enough.”

Carolina pulled out a chair for him and motioned for him to sit down.

“Oh, courteous.”

York lowered his voice so only she - and Epsilon - could hear him.

“You see me naked and suddenly you’re Madame Romance.”

“Did  **not** need to hear that.”

Epsilon - Church - made an exaggerated gagging noise.

“York!”

Carolina hissed at him.

_ “Church is plugged into my helmet!” _

York sputtered for a few seconds before awkwardly sitting down in the pulled out chair and resting his hand over his visor like he was trying to cover a blush.

“ **Lets begin.”**

Texas pulled out a holo projector from her desk drawer. 

“ **Our client wants to debrief you in person.”**

She set down the holo projector and pressed it on.

“ **Reggie, they’re here.”**

To South and Yorks seeming surprise when their employer did finally pop out of the outdated projector he sported a curled, thick moustache and some kind of Victorian era style suit. He looked like a fucking nerd.

“Reggie?”

York gasped, leaning forward.

“Wyoming?”

Only later would Carolina question why Church - Epsilon - seemed to know the man on sight.

“Good evening!”

“It’s… seven AM, Reg.”

York - who didn’t appear to be a fan of this guy - quipped back at him.

“Well,”

Reggie swirled the glass of wine he held in his hand.

“Time zones are a bitch aren’t they.”

“ **York.”**

Tex didn’t need to say anything further to silence him.

“As I’m sure you’ve concluded… I have a job for you.”

“ **Wyomin- Reginald thinks his business partner might have been kidnapped.”**

“Yes, Doctor O’Malley, little off his rocker but he’s a solid worker. He hasn’t so much as sent me a text in seven months.”

South leaned forward.

“You want us to hunt down a _ business partner?” _

“Yes.”

Reggie turned to her.

“And clearly, you haven’t changed at all Dakota.”

South sputtered angrily at the name - something Church and Carolina made a note to ask about later - and made a crude gesture at Reggies form.

“Sorry,”

He didn’t sound sorry.

“But yes. I do want you to track down my business partner. He’s very important to me you see and I would hate for him to fall into the wrong hands.”

“You don’t send any word for a year and a half and you finally hit us up for this?”

York cocked his head to the side.

“What makes this an S class mission?”

Carolina didn’t mean to interrupt this bonding moment but she had a feeling it was going nowhere.

“Well,”

Reggie took a small and tastefully British sip from his glass.

“That’s much more a face to face conversation but let’s just leave it at…  _ I’d hate to have him fall into the  _ wrong _ hands. _ ”

Carolina raised her eyebrow.

“What the fuck is with this guy?”

Church mused.

“Good question.”

Carolina murmured back.

  
  


“As Texas tells me, Agent Washington is still not at his physical peak after the _ incident  _ with CHARON so,”

Reggie pointed his glass in Carolina's direction.

“She volunteered you, Agent Carolina, as the best possible replacement.”

“Damn right.”

Church laughed.

“Let’s hope she isn’t as misguided as last time.”

Reggie took a long thoughtful sip from his glass.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me forcing myself to write wyoming who i cant for the fucking life of me write because i have fuck all else to do while quarantined: it es what it ees


	7. Baggage

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw  
> implied sexual trauma  
> suggestive language

**“As the accent no doubt gives away,”**  
Tex had explained in her usual unhelpful and stoic way.  
“ **We’re not staying stateside for long. York had the right idea getting suited up but I’m not a monster, you have four hours to pack and be ready to head to London.”**

Four hours normally wasn’t nearly long to prepare for any sort of abroad trip but Carolina didn’t exactly have much to pack. All of her clothes were picked up out of necessity from either Souths closet or thrift stores that took cash and asked little questions. Toiletries were a non issue for the most part - a travel size dye care conditioner would last her a few weeks and she had the benefit of being born without much of a menstruation cycle - so when push came to shove she could easily be packed in a few minutes.

South was a different story.

Carolina had been watching her pack and unpack a man's hooded sweatshirt for the past twenty minutes. She had a feeling it wasn’t a boyfriend - South wasn’t into guys - and it didn’t look to be any of the other freelancers' style.

“Whose jacket is that?”  
Epsilon - Church - asked Carolina, like she would know.

Carolina shrugged. She didn’t think she knew South well enough to ask about the way she reacted to Wyoming's naming of her OR the jacket she seemed to be so obsessed with.

“Asshole.”  
South muttered to the jacket with an air of finality before finally folding it up neatly and placing it in the bottom of her suitcase.

“That was weird.”  
Epsilon concluded.

“Hey, South, I’m going to check on York. See you in a bit?”

South nodded before pulling off some dog tags from her bedpost and stuffing them angrily in the jackets pocket.

\---

York wasn’t even the one packing when Carolina did finally arrive at his door.

Delta, in all his glory, was shifting through Yorks things and neatly organizing them into perfectly maintained piles around him.

“Hey Delta.”  
Carolina waved at him slightly.

 _“Good morning Carolina.”_  
He didn’t look at her.

Church's indignant cry of _hey, I’m here too_ was how Carolina learned that Church could use her helmet speakers without having to project himself out of her armour.

_“Oh. Hello, Epsilon. I see you’re adjusting.”_

“Eh, it’s give and take but I can finally stretch my digits out here.”

_“I suppose you must have felt very cramped before.”_

Church yawned back at him in response.  
“Man you have no idea.”

“Hey, D, why don’t you take Church and go on a walk? I’m pretty sure I can handle packing up now.”  
York, finally drawing some degree of attention to himself, mused from the bed.

Delta straightened himself out and looked at Carolina.  
 _“Well. To do that I would-”_

Carolina twisted off her helmet and held it out to Delta.  
“Just don’t let him talk your ear off before York gets the chance.”

Delta nodded before tucking the helmet under his arm and slipping out of the room.

York waited for Delta and Church to step out into the hall before patting the bed beside him.

“C’mere. I wanna talk to you.”

Carolina could think of a few things that he might want to talk to her about, but… then again, here was always a possibility he just wanted to kiss her in private.

Carolina strode over to him, settling down beside him cautiously. A part of her was kind of relieved to see York still wearing most of his armour - she didn’t have time to worry about if he was trying to get her naked right now.

“How are you holding up with Church in your head?”  
York cocked his head to the side as he placed his hand over hers.  
“Not to sound like a professional on the topic but I can relate to the watching what you say aspect of it.”

Carolina snorted, remembering all at once how she had actually met Delta.  
“Right. Delta.”

“Yup. Talk about a mood killer huh?”

Carolina smiled thinly before leaning over to plant a quick kiss on his temple. She liked kissing York; it was the other aspects of physicality that worried her.

“It’s not so bad,”  
She nudged his side with her elbow.  
“It’s what everyone else is saying that you have to watch.”

York snorted before leaning back, resting his hands behind him comfortably.  
“In my defense, it’s only natural to comment on previous nudity.”

Carolina snorted.  
“Yeah but you told my brother I’ve seen you naked.”

York shrugged.  
“It’s not like I told him I’ve seen you naked.”

Carolina was silently relieved he didn’t push that topic further. York hadn’t exactly hidden the fact that he wanted to have sex with her - it was just a given assumption the way he watched her - but he hadn’t made any moves towards that direction.

Carolina would have to be a complete idiot to not notice it though.

York had reacted obviously and enthusiastically to any sort of suggestiveness since the day they met. It was practically a gamble on whether or not York would suspiciously excuse himself to the bathroom any time she wore shorts that went slightly farther up her thighs than cargo pants.

“No. It’s not like you did.”  
Carolina, realizing she had to change the subject before York started it up again, stretched her arms out before standing up and walking over the neat piles of clothing Delta had left behind.  
“Are you ever going to pack these up or do you just intend to just give Delta a stroke?”

“Thought you might want to help me.”  
York purred back at her.

“You thought wrong. Get up!”

York obeyed her without question - he always did - and began neatly tucking the clothes and toiletries into the suitcase.

Despite the banter the two of them maintained throughout packing, Carolinas thoughts couldn’t help but wander to the box of condoms he had tucked into his toiletries bag.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> C is for Consent


	8. 20 questions: The Remastered Edition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw  
> implied sexual trauma  
> suggestive conversation

Carolina would have liked to say that she would have been able to stand flying coach, that she didn’t actually need tables in her jets, but that probably would have been lying. Carolina wasn’t spoiled or anything but she was used to a certain degree of movability.

Luckily for Carolina, her teammates seemed to be just as concerned with creature comfort as her father had been.

Texas, for all her flaws, had good taste in airlines. Whoever she had picked up this jet from they didn’t mess around when it came to quality and comfort, there was more than enough room to pace around in circles  _ and _ watch said pacers pace.

Seemingly as amused by the spaciousness of the jet as Carolina, Church was standing on the table in front of her rocking back and forth on his heels, watching South pace around in circles.

“Hey! South!”

Church clapped his hands.

“What are you doing?”

“Fuck off!”

She seemed even more irritable than usual and Carolina would have to be an idiot to not notice that at some point or another she had changed into the jacket from earlier. It fit well on her but Carolina couldn’t help but notice the sewn in initials of N.D on the shoulder. Unless South was hiding something Carolina was pretty sure it wasn’t her jacket.

“Hey,”

York stretched out from his previously tightly held position in the seat across from Carolina, raising his mug to South.

“If you’re bored me and Lina know a good time killer game.”

“We do?”

Carolina cocked her head, looking to York for clues.

“Yeah. 20 questions remember?”

_ Ohhhh,  _ Carolina had honestly almost forgotten about how their whole relationship started,  _ right. _

“You want to play 20 questions?”

South stopped her pacing and padded over across the carpeted interior to look at York skeptically.

“Yeah sure. We’re gonna be working together, might as well get used to small talk.”

South huffed before flopping down in the chair beside York.

“Fine.”

“Can Delta play?”

It seemed odd to Carolina that Church would be the one to ask if Delta could participate but far be it from her to stop her brother from developing actual friendships outside of his gaggle of idiots.

“Sure. Why not.”

York shrugged before taking his earpiece out and setting it on his wrist band.

“Hey D.”

In a matter of seconds Delta was standing level with Church on the table, his arms folded neatly over his chest.

“ _ I’ve never actually played this.” _

Delta looked nervously to the floor before shuffling his weight slightly and looking back to York for guidance.

“Ah don’t worry about it. It’s simple really; in a group like this everybody gets 20 questions to ask everyone else. Once you’re out of questions, even if you haven’t asked everyone something you’re done.”

“ _ I thought 20 questions was normally associated with identifying an object.” _

“Yeah if you’re a stickler for the rules.”

York huffed back at Delta, setting down his mug close enough to him to make him jump.

“I’ll go first,”

York turned to South.

“South, what is your favourite colour?”

“... Really?”

South groaned.

“It’s  _ fucking pink bitch. _ ”

York laughed and waved his hand dismissively.

“Just showing how it works.”

“I’m going to fucking _maul_ you.”

\---

Carolina had been grilled in every way she thought possible by every single person at the table INCLUDING the people she assumed would know her like York and Church. 

_ Maybe I need to be more open, _ she thought to herself as York blinked away his amazement at the realization she was more of a cat person than a dog person.

“ **What are you doing?”**

Carolina turned to look up at Texas, stunned to see her out of the cockpit. She had been monitoring the poor pilot for nearly two hours and if it were not for the burning ball of distaste still broiling in Carolinas stomach she would have forgotten she was here.

“20 questions!”

York motioned for her to sit down.

“Why don’t you join us, Tex?”

Carolina glared at York, hoping he could read her vibes through her shaded visor.

**“Sure,”**

Tex said after a stiff and uncomfortable pause.

**“How do you play…?** ”

“ _ Well it’s essentially a game of truth or dare with no dare option and a name that doesn’t fit anymore because I’m sure we’ve asked more than 20 questions.” _

York shushed Delta by way of waving his hand at him.

“We just ask people questions, could be nothing questions like  _ hey Church what's your favourite colour?” _

“Blue!”

Church chirped.

“And they answer! Like that! Or… it could be more serious like,”

York cleared his throat, leaned over the table so his visor was close to Carolinas.

“Do you ever wonder why we’re here, Carolina? Do you think that we’re just the product of some cosmic mistake or is there really a God watching everything?”

Carolina blinked in shock. Sure she’d seen York get pretty metaphysical before but that was pretty on the nose.

“Uh-”

York leaned back.

“Like that!”

**“I get it. Can I try?”**

York nodded and motioned at the gathered group of people and holograms.

“We’re all ears Tex.”

" **Carolina?"**

Because of  _ fucking _ course she went to Carolina first.

" **How is it having Epsilon in your helmet?"**

"Don't have to start with the harder questions."

York murmured into his mug.

"Oh,"

Carolina took a deep breath and shook her head free of her initial desire to leap over the table and strangle Tex. 

She glanced over to Church and grinned wickedly, she knew him well enough to know the body language of  _ please don't embarrass me in front of the hot girl _ when she saw it.

"It's an adjustment but he's always been a little shit who constantly rides on my back and talks a lot of shit for someone who you could flick into submission."

One time in ninth grade Church threw up noodles into her lunch bag while she tried to give her number to a beautiful female upperclassman. She didn't feel too bad.

" **Nice.** "

Texas snorted.

"I am n-"

Carolina flicked her fingers through Churchs form a few times to shut him up.

"Carolina!"

Churchs form flashed a hot embarrassed red.

"See?"

Carolina gestured to him.

" **I like this game.** "

“My turn!”

South slapped her hands down excitedly.

"Carolina! How  _ is _ York in bed?"

York spat out his - luckily no longer hot - coffee out all over Carolina. 

Normally Carolina would be pissed to have to clean her armour and hair clean from York coffee spit but she was secretly glad for the out it provided her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BITCH U THOT I WAS DONE WITH 20 QUESTIONS BITCH U THOT


	9. London Air

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw  
> suggestive conversation  
> implied past child abuse

Carolina was really proud of herself for making it all the way through approximately four thousand rounds of twenty questions in which Texas only asked  _ her _ questions and dodged every question anyone posed to her without strangling the nearest person.

She’d be patting herself on the fucking back it it wasn’t for York nuzzling his face into her while she made herself another round of coffee.

“Mmmm…”

York purred, wrapping his arms around her waist. Carolina honestly wasn’t sure if he was relieved she had finally stripped off her bulky body armour or if he was just finally feeling the sleep deprivation setting in when he buried his face into her shoulder.

“Hey Lina.”

“Hey, York. You should take a nap, we’ve still got a few more hours left and Souths already passed out.”

“I don’t wanna.”

He squeezed her tightly against him.

“I wanna talk to youuuu…” 

“About what?   
Carolina tried to hide the dread rising up in her voice.

“What South said earlier.”

_ Damnit! She should have known! He was going to ask her about they haven’t had sex yet and she was going to have to explain it to him and- _

“We don’t have to have sex.”

York pulled away from her back slightly so as to better nuzzle his face against hers.

“I don’t want you to feel pressured to do anything with me.”

Carolina didn’t try to hide the sigh of relief escaping her.

“We don’t need to do anything.”

York pulled away from Carolina and slid into the gap she had left in between her and the cupboard. 

“Alright?”

He held out his hand to her, clearly wanting her to take it.

Carolina smiled thinly and slid her hand into his.

“Alright.”

York pulled her close and kissed her forehead before taking her freshly made cup of coffee and pouring it down the fucking drain.

“York!”

Carolina pulled away indignantly.

“What’d you do that for?”

“You need to sleep too, Carolina.”

“I’m fine.”

She puffed out her chest angrily.  _ Who did he think he was? _

“No you’re not. You’re just as tired as I am.”

York took her hands and began pulling her towards a set of seats he had already pulled out into their bed formation.

“Church tells me you’ll stay up for days if I let you and I believe him.”

“She will!”

Church reaffirmed from where he was still talking to Delta on the table.

“I have seen you spend night after night on the training floor trying to get your score up and it’s killing you man.”

“That’s easy for you to say. You take a year-long break and you’re still number two!”

“And you haven’t been here seven months and you’re already number five and on your first S class mission.”

York pulled Carolina down onto the surprisingly comfortable pull out.

“Take a break, Carolina. You’re _ obsessed  _ with that leaderboard and when you’re not worrying about it you’re worrying about the Director.”

“Of course I-”

Before Carolina could finish York had pulled her down on her back and wrapped his arms around her protectively.

“Just relax.”

York pressed a kiss against her cheek.

“If we hear anything from the director overnight I’m  _ sure  _ Church will tell us all about it and I am _ also _ sure that the leaderboards not going anywhere overnight.”

Carolina wasn’t convinced Texas wouldn’t pull a rank higher than number one of her ass overnight but, eventually, gave in and turned so she could bury her face in Yorks chest. She didn’t realize it before but she was rather fond of mushing her face into the York tiddy.

\---

Texas woke them all up with a fucking airhorn. 

Because everythings louder in Texas.

**“We’ll be landing in 20 minutes!”**

Carolina shot awake, immediately dashing to where she had stashed her armour. She wasn’t going to arrive without her armour on and it took at least fifteen minutes to get all the internals sorted out!

York, however, made no move to rush towards his armour - or anywhere else for that matter - instead he simply watched as Carolina and South dashed around the jet grabbing their armour and whatever else they had brought on the plane with them.

“Girls and their full body armour huh, Church?”

“You said it.”

Church snorted before kicking at Deltas projector ring. At some point during the night, Delta had fallen asleep without ending the call so as Carolina rushed to find her armour pieces she could easily watch him snore.

“Hey!”

“ _ Wh-” _

Delta looked around him a few times in confusion before loading what was going on and waving to Carolina.

“ _ Good morning Agent-” _

__ “Can’t talk right now!”

Carolina dashed past South and slammed the door of the only bathroom wide enough to change in shut.

“Carolina!”

South screeched at her, banging on the door a few times before finally relenting to the fact that she’d just have to tell the other plane occupants not to look while she changed in the corner.

\---

When they did land Texas had them wait in the plane while she sorted things out with the airport. Apparently Reggie had insisted on them taking one of his drivers and limos back to his house and wouldn’t let Texas simply pay for a more on time alternative.

“Another limo huh?”

York purred at Carolina as she twisted on her helmet. Carolina could feel his eyebrow raise at her; even if he was wearing a visored helmet.

“Seems to be a trend.”

Carolina laughed. She couldn’t exactly pretend she didn’t think it wasn’t a little amusing how they had seemingly come full circle in the past six months.

“ **Limos finally here. You can come with me now.”**

Texas barely even gave anyone enough time to register that she had poked her head in the airplane before ducking back out and beginning her walk back along the docking hallway.

“Out of the frying pan I guess.”

York made sure to give Carolina a playful pat on the shoulder before following her out. 

Carolina  _ still  _ had no idea how he had managed to get his armour on so fast.

When they did finally navigate their way through the maze commonly referred to as an airport by the locals and step out into the blinding lights of the London cityscape, Carolina had long since given up trying to outpace Texas and had settled for walking at the same speed as her.

“ **He said it should be around here somewhere.”**

Texas, clearly not knowing what the fuck a limo looked like, scanned the crowd of cars for a black vehicle parked directly in front of her.

“I’m going to assume it’s this one.”

York reached past her to open the door.

“Hey,”

He nodded his head to the driver.

“You here for us?”

“Are you Agent York?”

The driver turned to look at him, his brown eyes shining with an emotion Carolina couldn’t read. She couldn’t help but find it a little... odd to see a driver with a slicked back undercut. If it weren’t for the dry cleaned suit and orange tie she’d expect to find him at a club flirting with a bridesmaid rather than driving for some rich asshole.

“Expecting any other devilishly handsome men in full body armour?”

York slid in the back of the limo.  _ Did he ever fucking stop? _

Carolina slid open the back door and apprehensively ducked into the car. Maybe getting into the armour before getting into a car was a bad idea...

“Starting to regret the armour?”

Church laughed at her like he could read her thoughts - maybe he could and she didn’t know.

“Or are you just reminiscing?”

_ “Definitely _ not the second option.”

“Wow!”

South slid in beside Carolina.

“Is this really what rich people travel in all the time?”

“Yup.” 

York pulled off his helmet and reached for a bottle of champagne tucked into a nearby cooler.

“Master Reginald insists you manage your drinking Agent York.”

The driver adjusted his mirror so as to best interrogate York with his eyebrows.

“Yeah yeah.”

York grumbled before tucking the bottle back into the cooler.

“Am I seriously the only one who isn’t over this shit?”

South slapped her hands on her thighs as she talked.

“ _ You are likely the only one yes.” _

Delta chirped from York's wrist.

Carolina laughed at Souths bewilderment. 

“You get used to it eventually.”

South shoved Carolina.

“Yeah if your dads fucking _ Scrooge McDuck!” _

“What’d Scrooge McDuck ever do to you?”

Church shot back.

“Scrooge is awesome. Our dads...  _ Not _ .”

The conversation came to an abrupt halt for a few moments, leaving Carolina to mull that over in her head.

  
“ **I’ve never been in a limo.”**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> texas be socially awkward


	10. The Rich

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw  
> suggestive conversation

Reggie lived in a fucking mansion.

Because of course he did.

The more things change the more they stay the same and all that stuff Carolina tried not to believe in.

“Nice place,”

York said, stepping out of the limo.

“Reggies’ done well for himself since he left.”

“I’ve seen bigger.”

South quipped as she pried her previously stuck armour backing free from the door, leaving an indentation where it had previously been.

“ **Here.”**

Carolina looked over from where she had exited the vehicle to watch as Texas handed the driver something.

“ **It’s not much but if you pawn it I’m sure you’ll be able to get a fair amount.”**

  
  


The driver smiled at Texas and thanked her quickly - and slightly insincerely - before closing the door and driving towards the special limousine parkade across the street.

  
“What’d you do that for?”

Carolina cocked her head at Tex curiously.

“Because she's a good person.”

Church interjected over Carolina's internal speakers.

“Duh.”

Carolina was going to say something snarky in response but found herself being interrupted by the mansion doors swinging open and revealing a tall, well groomed white man - the same from the holo message yesterday - and a snarling husky.

“Hey-”

York barely had time to register the husky before it threw itself down the stairs and tackled him to the ground.

“Nice!”

South laughed as the dog began chewing on York's helmet, trying to pull it apart with its teeth.

“Did I forget to mention he doesn’t like men?”

Reggie strode down the stairs to where Carolina was trying to pry the surprisingly tough husky off of York.

“Sorry.”

He really didn’t sound sorry at all.

“Common sense really.”

South interjected, patting the dogs head as he continued to snap at York's visor.

“Down.”

Reggie commanded the dog.

To Carolina - and Yorks - immense relief the dog obediently jumped off of York and nuzzled his muzzle into Reggies dress pants. Why anyone other than Delta would opt to wear a white button up shirt and black dress pants when in the comforts of their own home was beyond Carolina, but she didn’t have time to worry about it.

“Come inside.”

Reggie motioned for them to follow him towards the ornate, gold trimmed doors.

“Too many eyes out here.”

York, still trying to clean the dog spit and gray hairs off of his armour, was the second last to follow Texas and Reggie inside, leaving Carolina to take in her surroundings.

“Nice place.”

Church mused with a hint of sadness.

“Yeah.”

Carolina looked along the driveway, checking out each parallel garages before finally returning her attention to the doorway. It wasn’t nearly as decorative or as flashy as the mansion she had been raised in but the perfectly painted white exterior walls and trims were enough to turn anyone's head.

Carolina took a deep breath. She could handle this.

Carolina took a step towards the door before stopping cold.

_ Was somebody… watching her? _

Carolina was about to turn around to investigate the foliage behind her when York called to her from the doorway.

Deciding to investigate later, Carolina slipped in after him.

\---

“Make yourselves at home.”

Reggie said, gesturing around him.

“You’re all more than welcome to find yourself a guest bedroom upstairs to hunker down in until supper.”

“Supper?”

York leaned closer to Reggie eagerly.

“Yes. I figured you might all be a bit more receptive to information if I gave you food and a chance to rest.”

Reggie pulled away from York slightly as he talked.

York nodded.

“Mmhmm!”

“Good. Supper will be at seven, it’s two now so you’ve got plenty of time to get settled.”

Reggie waved his hand dismissively as he walked away from them.

_ “Texas _ and I have some catching up to do.”

**“Right.”**

Texas walked ahead a few steps before turning to look back at Carolina, York and South.

“ **You should all get some rest while me and Reggie talk.”**

“You’re letting us run around wildly in a mansion full of expensive things?”

York purred.

“Don’t need to tell me twice!”

South was gone almost as soon as she finished speaking.

Carolina watched as Texas sauntered after Reggie. She couldn’t believe how she had just _ dismissed  _ them -  _ dismissed her! _ \- like they were fucking kids!

Carolina had a half a mind to go up to her and-

York touched Carolina's hand with his.

“Hey, Lina. You… wanna go find a bedroom? Take a nap?”

All of a sudden, Carolina felt all of her previous fitful sleep on the plane cancel out. _ She was fucking exhausted! _

“With you?”

She asked cautiously.

“Sure, we sleep together all the time. It’s nice having a pillow buddy.”

She didn’t need to see Yorks face to know he was smiling.

“Am I interrupting something?”

Church, audibly uncomfortable, interjected over Carolina's exterior comms.

“Don’t worry about it Epsilon, I’m just asking your sister if I could have her permission to fall asleep cradled in her big strong protective arms.”

Carolina snorted at York.

“Why don’t you power down for a little bit Church? You could use some rest too.”

“That’s not how it works but… alright. Sleep tight, Sis.”

With a final beep Carolina felt Church leave her to curl up and clean himself free of the past few days' stress somewhere else in her armour.

“C’mon.”

Carolina let York lead her up the stairs - suitcases in hand - and towards an open bedroom door. Carolina had no idea how he had gotten so good at finding bedrooms in mansions but she decided to let it go.

York stripped off his armour in about half the time it had taken him to get it on and in a matter of seconds was tucked under the covers waiting for Carolina to do the same.

Carolina took longer to get de-armoured - she liked to take her time - than York did and even longer to get to sleep.

If Carolina was being honest with herself, the last thing on her mind was the unusual driver and his ever so slightly familiar voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://i.ytimg.com/vi/e-Lp7kQWaNg/maxresdefault.jpg is wyomings mansion


	11. Dinner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw   
> suggestive conversations

Carolina woke up an hour and a half before Yorks set alarm went off.

Apparently, to no one’s surprise, Delta was up as well, as she could see him examining the room from York's wrist projector with total fascination.

"Morning Delta."

Delta jumped and waved his hands around, visibly startled. It took him a solid thirty seconds of jittery fumbling with his glasses for him to properly register Carolina as a person rather than a vaguely sinister shadow out of the corner of his eye.

" _ Oh," _

Delta took a shaky, anxious breath before straightening out his tie and readjusting.

" _ Hello. _ "

Carolina had spent more than enough time around traumatized people to know what a fear response looked like, she'd have to be a dumbass to not recognize that as what Delta had experienced. 

She hadn't meant to startle him but of course he would be a little on edge; they were in a strange new country, on a strange new assignment with a strange moustache twirling weirdo.

"Hey, I didn't mean to scare you,"

Carolina went to move closer to where Delta had settled at the end of the bed but found herself fighting against York's arm, still resting on her side holding her in place.

"I just woke up."

" _ I haven't slept much. I can't sleep until I know York's surroundings. Normally it's easy to run a scan through his comm but something in the mansion must be interfering with my sensors." _

_ “ _ We can ask Reggie about it at supper,”

Carolina patted the bed beside her - it had once seemed strange to her how York would gesture to Delta like he was physically there but now she was coming around to the practice.

“Sit with me. Yorks going to be out for a while and I could use some company.”

Delta padded over the sheets and sat down beside her, looking up at her curiously.

“ _ You know I’m not much of a conversationalist right?” _

Carolina shrugged.

“You don’t need to be.”

Delta smiled thinly before crossing his arms comfortably over his chest and laying down.

_ “I think I’m going to try to go to sleep if that’s alright with you, Agent Carolina. You seem to have this under control.” _

Carolina nodded.

“Yeah I do.”

Delta didn’t take long to fall asleep after convincing himself Carolina could handle the situation. If Carolina was being truly honest with herself there was something endearing about watching Deltas chest rise and fall, knowing that Delta was actually a six foot tall man with an attitude and a sense of self righteousness didn’t take away from the inherent desire to protect something as small and as seemingly defenseless as his tiny holographically projected form.

_ Then why _ , a nagging voice in Carolinas head asked,  _ did she have trouble accepting Epsilon as Church? _

Carolina mulled that question over in her head in silence until Yorks comm finally buzzed Delta and York awake.

\---

Reggie had a dining hall the size of a small football field.

Carolina had seen plenty of impressive dining halls in her time but there was always something jarring about seeing a new one for your first time. It made Carolina feel out of place, something she wasn’t used to.

“Nice.”

Church whistled from her helmet.

Carolina had been told to bring Church with her to supper - something that she supposed made sense - but she hadn’t figured out any other way to do so other than tucking her helmet under her arm and carrying him around. 

It was initially a bit awkward to walk around in her civvies while carrying a high tech helmet but any sort of self doubt and worry about being judged quickly faded from her mind when she spotted Texas sitting beside Reggie still in full armour.

“Why the fuck-”

Carolina began.

“She never takes it off.”

York cut her off with a wave of his hand.

“Isn’t that right D?”

He looked to his wrist - and thus Delta - for affirmation.

“ _ Never. Nobody knows what she looks like.” _

“Nobody?”

Church asked curiously. He wasn’t even trying to be subtle about it anymore.

“ **Carolina, sit down.”**

Why did she single her out? York was standing up too! South wasn’t even fucking here yet!

Carolina pulled out the seat across from Texas and beside where Reggie sat at the head of the table, setting her helmet down in the chair beside her. 

“Aw.”

York made an exaggerated whimper sound before sitting down in the chair beside the helmet.

“I wanted to sit there.”

“Where is Dakota?”

Reggie purred, turning away from Carolina and back to Texas.

**“She's in the bathroom, she’ll be here shortly.”**

“No point in waiting for her.”

Reggie reached under the table to grab some sort of remote he had stashed under his chair. Once he had removed the remote from its hiding spot Reggie made a big show of looking over the buttons before finally settling on a large red button settled in the middle of the remote and pressing it. 

In a matter of seconds a loud bell chime rang out across the dinner and doors began to open on either side of the dining hall to reveal well dressed men and women holding various covered dishes. Carolina watched in amazement as they flocked to the table and set down nearly a dozen dishes, uncovering them one by one to reveal one exquisite dish after another. 

“Whoa.”

Church appeared on his plate, eyeing the dishes hungrily.

Reggie waved his hand dismissively, sending the servants back to their previously unseen places.

“I don’t think you’ll be able to have anything here.”

“Don’t remind me.”

Church groaned.

“ _ I microwaved a four day old subway sandwich for supper.” _

Delta added wistfully.

Carolina looked over the table, taking in her options. Bowls of beautifully cheesy pasta sat sandwiched between roasts and slabs of gloriously garnished steak, even though Carolina wasn’t much of a foodie she would have to be incompetent to not notice her own salivating. Everything smelled  _ delicious. _

“Dig in,”

Reggie gestured vaguely.

“We have much to discuss.”

\--

South had joined them at some point or another but she didn’t seem to care much for the conversation, her eyes were all for the food in front of her. Carolina could respect that even if she couldn’t relate. 

Carolina ate in silence, careful to savour every bit of her steak and pasta - the first of what she assumed would be many helpings - while she listened to Texas and Reggie talk.

“ **So. Tell us about this O’Malley.”**

“He’s a friend of a friend for the most part, but recently him and I began to work together on a project we like to call Project Simtrooper. The idea behind it is that we hire some down on their luck combatants, train them with the latest technology and resources we have available to us and freelance them out to our business associates.”

“ **You’re training guns for hire?”**

“Not in so many words but yes. We specialize in body guards for the rich and powerful but sometimes, if the fancy strikes us, we have been known to outsource to military outlets like UNSC who might be short of reaching their recruitment numbers.”

“So you’re working with the UNSC now huh?”

York huffed.

“Only in name. Trust me, York, there is no love between us.”

“Right.”

York scoffed into his wine.

“ **York.”**

Texas turned back to Reggie after deciding that York was sufficiently stared down.

“ **Why do you think that O’Malley is missing?”**

  
  


“As I said, he hasn’t returned any of my calls in months. Normally I would be able to discount it as him being off on another one of his wild goose chases but recently I received this transmission.”

Reggie pulled a projector from his pocket and set it on the table, pressing play with his forefinger.

To Carolina's immense surprise a short brown haired man dressed in a purple suit that had clearly seen better days appeared in front of them, strapped to a chair. He has clearly been beaten recently and seemed to show no recognition of where he was or anything around him.

“Mrmupf…”

The man murmured weakly. 

“You… bastards…”

The hologram cut out as abruptly as it had played.

“But really,”

Reggie poured himself a glass of red wine.

“It’s just a hunch.”

“Son of a bitch…”

Church murmured under his breath.

\---

Carolina finished eating long before anyone else at the table and excused herself at the first chance she got.

She didn’t mind leaving Church to track the message from the table, if anything it made sneaking around to examine the kitchen and surrounding area easier. Church would have just distracted her from her mission.

She wasn’t entirely sure why she was looking but a part of her knew that she had to at least try and get a scope of what kind of person Reggie was. If she was ever going to be able to understand what kind of job this was she was going to first have to understand what kind of man her host was.

Carolina checked the kitchen first, slinking in through the heavy metal door located at the end of the dining hall. It wasn’t like she wasn’t allowed to wander but still the emptiness of the kitchen made her feel unwelcome. 

It was only her slinking from counter to counter, examining each neatly cleaned surfacetop, for some time. 

It was only when a sudden flurry of falling pots and pans caught her attention that Carolina realized she had been followed.

Carolina wheeled around, prepared for anything.

“Who’s th-”

Carolina stopped, making eye contact with the driver from the morning.

“You! What are you-”

Before Carolina could finish her sentence the door was pushed open by none other than the woman of every hour. 

“ **Carolina.”**

In the split second Carolina had turned away from him to look at Texas, the driver had disappeared once more, leaving Carolina alone with  _ her. _

“ **Can I talk to you outside?”**

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope everyones staying safe !


	12. We Need To Talk (again)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw  
> past character death

Texas had her follow her outside onto a balcony overlooking the back garden -  _ what was with her and her insistence on waiting to start a conversation? _ \- before even looking at her.

“What did you want to talk about?”

Carolina crossed her arms over her chest, standing back from where Texas was.

“ **Has anyone ever told you about what happened to Maine?”**

Carolina blinked in surprise.

“Well, I heard his vocal chords got damaged on a job but… well, he’s not exactly able to talk about it.”

“ **It’s my fault.”**

Texas turned to look at Carolina.

“ **Me and Maine were working on a job with York and North. It was supposed to be a simple scouting of a building. We were just prepping for the clients extraction team, getting some lay out information. I had told the others to run up point, we would cover their tail.”**

Carolina, despite herself, found herself stepping towards Texas.

**“I tripped a silent alarm. I wasn’t paying enough attention and everything went to shit.”**

Texas took a deep heavy breath.

**“I wasn’t watching Maine, I thought he could handle himself. Turns out I was wrong.”**

“Maines a tough guy-”

Carolina began.

“ **Tough guys still get blind sided,”**

Texas turned on her, cutting her short with an angry wave of her hand.

**“Which is why I need to know that you’re not going to get on York's blind side.”**

“What?”

Carolina sputtered indignantly.

“ **I’ve seen the way he acts around you. If he gets distracted at the wrong time he could get hurt or killed.”**

Carolina watched in surprise as Texas took the sides of her helmet and twisted it off. 

Texas wasn’t nearly as impressive under the helmet as Carolina had been expecting in all honesty. She wasn’t very distinct or even very chiselled; her jaw wasn’t very defined or strong, her short cut blonde hair barely reached past her ears and there was nothing really striking about her eyes. 

Texas was… kind of just a person.

“Two years ago me York, Delta, South and North were running recon on a job,

It was odd hearing Texas without her voice filter.

“We got blind sided because I got cocky. I had us split up our warthogs, I thought we could cover more ground. By the time I got back to the others Delta was a mess, Wash was gone and North was trying to fix everything all on his own. I abandoned my team.”

Carolina took a deep breath and stepped closer, putting her hand out towards Texas. Luckily for Carolina's pride, she managed to stop herself before actually making contact with her.

“I’ve gotten more than enough of my men hurt or killed,”

Texas turned to look at her, fire burning in her eyes.

“I brought you along because I wanted to make sure - on a mission I can control, I can predict - that you’re not liable to be the next thing that gets my guys killed.”

Carolina huffed angrily.

“Hey! York can take care of himself! And so can I! I’m not dead weight!”

Texas twisted her helmet back on.

“ **You better not be.”**

Carolina watched Texas leave, feeling her fists clench and unclench with every step she took. 

She wanted to throttle her!

_ ‘You better not be. _ ’ Now what the fuck is THAT supposed to mean?

Carolina made it all the way until Texas closed the door behind her before screaming and slamming her foot into a nearby wall.

“BITCH!”

She cried out into the open air.

“WHO DOES SHE THINK SHE IS?”

Carolina could KILL her! She could march right in there and grab her by the neck and choke her out!  _ Motherfucker! _

Carolina slammed her fist into the wall.

“That self righte-”

“Could you keep it DOWN up there?”

Carolina blinked in surprise before looking down to the garden floor. There, amongst the well maintained flower bushes, sat the driver from earlier.  _ Why was he always here? _

“Uh- Sorry.”

She leaned over the balcony and watched as the driver walked towards the balcony, stopping only when he was right below Carolina.

“Interpersonal trouble?”

The driver purred at her.

“Uh… You could say that.”

“Know the feel.”

The driver took a cigarette box from his suit breast pocket and pulled a slightly bent cigarette from it. Carolina watched in suppressed interest as he pulled a lighter from his pants and lit the cigarette. 

There was just something  _ familiar  _ about this guy.

“Have we met before?”

“I drove you here.”

The driver pulled the cigarette from his teeth and blew smoke from his lips.

“No I mean… before that.”

“No, sorry.”

The driver shook his head.

“I’d probably remember if we had. I remember everybody I meet.”

“I’m…”

Carolina hesitated before continuing, she didn’t want to give this man anything to look her up with, first names only. 

“Carolina.”

Carolina was a common enough name, right?

“Felix.”

The driver - Felix - purred back at her.

“It was nice meeting you, Carolina, but I’m afraid I’ve gotta go.”

“But-”

Before Carolina could say anything more Felix had already walked under the balcony and out of her view.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there he is


	13. Growing Pains

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw  
> emotional issues  
> past trauma

Still reeling from the unusual encounter in the garden, Carolina found herself walking in a robotic fashion back to where she had left Church.

“Carolina!”

Carolina looked up from the floor to look at Church. Church, ever full of surprises, had in the time she had been gone seemingly figured out how to project a full size hologram of himself and was now lounging back on the chair with his hands in his pockets and feet on the long since cleared table.

“Church! You- you’re full size!”

Church nodded back at her.

“I figured it might make you more comfortable.”

“For what?”

Carolina pulled out a chair beside him, looking him up and down. He looked the same as she remembered him looking before all the AI nonsense happened but something was different about him, it took her a while to put her finger on it but when she did it all seemingly made sense.

For the first time in nearly seven years Church looked well groomed.

“I wanna talk to you about something,”

Church turned his head to her, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“It’s important.”

“Is it about the transmission?”

Church crinkled up his nose and leaned his head back.

“No but that might be easier to talk about.”

“Huh?”

Carolina cocked her head slightly, she had never seen Church like this. He was acting… weird.

“Listen, I know the Church family speaks only in sarcasm and weaponized self hatred,”

Church rubbed at the bridge of his nose.

“But we need to…  _ talk _ about  _ feelings  _ right now.”

“We- we do?”

Carolinas heart dropped into her stomach.

“Yeah, I’m not over the moon about it myself but we have to.”

“Okay,”

Carolina nodded slowly. She could handle this, it was Church, he wasn’t actually going to go for the hard hitters without some alcohol in his system.

“What do we need to talk about?”

  
  


“This,”

Church gestured to his body.

“I know this is weird for you. Trust me, it’s fucking weird for me too but it’s not about what makes us comfortable is it?”

“I guess not…”

“For the past seven years I’ve been fighting this… thing in my head. Everything I did I was wondering where I stopped and where it started, what was Epsilon and what was Church.”

Church pulled himself onto a sitting position on the previously pristine table.

“And it wasn’t until recently that I realized that it wasn’t just Church and Epsilon or Church OR Epsilon.”

“What do you mean?”

Church rubbed at his neck.

“When me and Sigma were poking around in this chip we found these… fragments left over from whatever was originally on this chip.”

“Fragments?”

“Yeah. For the past seven years I thought I was just going crazy; having arguments with no one, hearing voices that weren’t actually there… stuff like that.”

“You’ve been hearing voices?”

Church nodded.

“It was like all my thought processes were separate entities, like they were coming from somewhere else but when I got zapped - thank you VERY much Caboose - and stuffed back into this chip they all seemed to integrate into me.”

“Are they gone?”

“No,”

Church shook his head.

“If anything they're louder than ever. But they’re different now. I can make sense of them, sort them into distinct personalities and model them after people I can tangibly see, people who I don’t mind having in my head.”

“So,”

Carolina began after a long and weighted pause.

“These fragments, they’re left over from the original AI?”

“Yeah but they’re not really fragments anymore, not when they’re with me. They just feel like they’re me now. Me but different.”

Carolina took longer than she would have liked to admit to take that in. It was a lot to process. First Church was telling her that he was aware she was acting differently with him, next he was telling her that he had been hearing voices for years and now he had up and dropped the bomb shell of AI dissociative identity disorder on her.

“Sis?”

Carolina looked up at Church and smiled.

“I’m glad you told me.”

“Oh. Yeah. Thanks. I just,”

Church cleared his throat.

“Figured I should get it out there.”

Carolina wanted to pull him into a tight hug and never let him go but she knew that was impossible so she settled for making fun of him. 

“You know, you always have been hard to reach out to, can’t blame me for not realizing.”

“Bitch!”

Church yipped.

“I’m a paragon of emotional sensitivity and openness!”

“You didn’t even tell me you were left handed until I was fourteen!”

“Who needs to know that?”

“I LEARNED LAST YEAR YOU LOST YOUR GLASSES IN THIRD GRADE!”

“YOUR FAULT FOR ASSUMING I USED CONTACTS!”

Church puffed out his chest angrily and glared down at Carolina. From this angle he looked like a stubborn little kid throwing a fit in a drug store.

Carolina couldn’t help it.

She had to laugh.

“YOUR FACE!”

Carolina squeaked through bursts of laughter, pointing at his puffed out cheeks and muzzled hair.

“WHAT ABOUT IT?”

Carolina couldn’t vocalize anything further, her fits of laughter were too strong to fight back.

Church took a few seconds to calm down but soon enough they were both laughing uncontrollably. 

Carolina hadn’t realized how much she had been suppressing these past few months but now, after releasing the slightest amount of positive emotion, she felt like she had been lifted free of a cement block holding her down.  _ How much else was she suppressing? _

“Listen, Sis,”

Church rubbed at his face.

“I know this is as an adjustment for you but-”

“It doesn’t matter, Churc- Epsilon. You’re still my brother.”

Church smiled at her faintly.

“You should sleep.”

Carolina nodded and stood up, reaching for her helmet.

“No,”

Epsilon waved her hand away.

“I do need to work on the transmission, it’ll be easier if I work here alone.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. Good night Sis.”

“Good night Epsilon. I love you.”

Epsilon nodded back at her before shrinking back into her helmet.

“I love you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> two fluffy bits for you today  
> also pls dont expect two updates every day , its much more likely to be only one update per day this is just a special day


	14. I really like you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw  
> sexual implications  
> implied masturbation  
> emotional issues  
> issues with communication

Carolina was really bad at remembering to knock before entering rooms.

“LINA!”

York squeaked as Carolina pushed open the door, audibly slapping a data pad across the room and away from him.

“Am I interrupting something?”

Carolina peeked around the door, looking at York's hastily covered form.

“Nope!”

York lied from under the covers. His voice was nearly eight octaves higher than usual.

“I can go-”

Carolina said stiffly.

“It’s fine, I hadn't really started yet anyway.”

York pulled himself into a sitting position, quickly burritoing himself up in the covers as he sat up.

Carolina took a fair amount of time to decide to finally sit beside him.  _ This was awkward… _

“Oh!”

York clapped his hands suddenly, breaking up the dozens of thoughts clouding Carolina's head.

“I heard Tex and Wyoming talking after supper while you were in the kitchen, apparently Texas is planning to take another one of us with her scouting out O’Malleys apartment. See what she can find!”

“Did she say which one?”

Carolina, feeling rather relieved at the topic change, leaned closer to York. 

“Nah but it’ll probably be you. South doesn’t work well with others and I’m about half as perceptive as I used to be.”

Carolina snorted before lightly shoving her shoulder against York's side.

“I’m sure you handle it just fine.”

York snorted and nuzzled his face into her shoulder.

“Don’t flirt with me right now.”

“Why not?”

Carolina purred back at him. She knew why not, she was just feeling adventurous.

“Really gonna make me spell it out for you huh?”

York pressed a kiss against her neck before pulling her down on top of him. The bed creaked under the sudden weight shift, leaving Carolina silently glad that Church was downstairs and Delta's broadcaster was seemingly offline on the nightstand.

Carolina laughed, pulling back from him with an exaggerated pout.

“You haven’t even told me what you’re going to spell out.”

York groaned before pulling her back down and squeezing her tightly against his chest.

“You’re such a tease!”

“Only a little bit.”

Carolina smiled, tucking her head into Yorks neck.

“Hey, listen,”

York pushed her back off of him.

“I saw you and Tex sneaking off earlier. What’s that about?”

Carolina growled.

“Don’t get me started on her right now.”

“Aw _c’mon_ we weren’t doing anything. Just tell me about what she said.”

Carolina chewed her lip, remembering what Texas had said to her. Did she really want to ruin York's good mood even more by reminding him about what she assumed was another one of the most traumatic experiences in his life? 

_ No, _ she decided, _ she didn’t want to completely kill this mood. _

“She told me,”

Carolina began carefully.

“That she thinks I could blind side you.”

“Damn. Yeah that's Allison for you. Don’t worry about her, Lina, I can handle myself.”

“That’s what I told her!”

Carolina leaned back into Yorks neck, hesitating before giving him a playful nip.

“Eeep!”

York squeaked, swatting lightly at her back.

“That tickles!”

“Oh really?”

Carolina rumbled into his neck before nipping it again.

“Hah- Yeah!”

York pulled her tight against his chest, smothering any further attempts at seduction or flirtation in his sweaty pyjama t-shirt. 

Carolina let herself relax into Yorks touch, smiling faintly as she listened to the slightly off beat thump of his heart. He was right about having a pillow buddy, it had its appeals.

“York?”

“Yeah?”

_ I love you _ , Carolina wanted to say,  _ I love spending time with you. I love watching you work. I love watching how you act with others. I love how you’re so nice to me and how you’ve always been respectful of my boundaries. _

“Good night.”

She finally murmured.

“Good night, Carolina.”

\---

Texas woke Carolina up by hitting two pots together and dropping them on the floor.

“ **Carolina!”**

Carolina sprung out of bed, waving her hands around wildly, half expecting there to be a fire raging in the mansion or a gun pointed at her head.

“Wha- What are you-”

“ **Get ready. You and I are going to go check out O’Malleys house later on today and I want to walk there.”**

For the eighth time in two days Carolina had half a mind to run her down and beat her to death with her own skull. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ive had the "if ur only playing nice bc u wanna lay the pipe ur a simp" song stuck in my head for a day now yorks not a simp but church is  
> also this isnt related but i refuse to accept any alpha body head canons that dont portray him as chubby and hairy. twink churchs are not valid hes a bear.


	15. You're A Simp, Mister Church

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw  
> violence

Carolina was told - ordered really - to grab Church from the dining room the second she walked out of the room. 

Sure, she had known in theory that he had probably been waiting all night unable to move from the chair, but that didn’t mean it was any less funny when she did finally step out into the dining room and look at where Church was seemingly playing hologram poker against an green version of himself.

“You’re taking too long.”

Church mused.

“ _ I like to plan things out. _ ”

Shot back the green Church.

“Hey Churches!”

Carolina called as she walked up to them.

“Carolina!”

Church looked up at her, the green clone and cards disappearing into his form.

“You’re here!”

Carolina grabbed the helmet and twisted it on.

“And ready for my armour to be complete again.”

“Are you just wearing this for fun or are we going somewhere?”

“Texas wants us to investigate O’Malleys house, insists on walking there too. She says we’ll get food on the way but I have a sneaking suspicion I should grab some before.”

“Kitchens empty.”

“Thanks.”

Carolina grabbed herself a sandwich - nothing fancy, just two slices of bread and cheese - and headed out away from the dining hall and towards the pacing Texas.

“ **Oh! You’re here!”**

“Sup!”

Church squeaked from Carolinas comms.

**“Oh. Nothing much…?”**

Texas replied stiffly.

“If we’re going we should make some progress before the sun gets too high and turns us into walking goo in armour.”

Carolina pushed past Texas and towards the front door.

“Hey!”

Church whined in her ear.

“I was getting somewhere there!”

“No, you weren’t.”

“Yeah, I really wasn’t.”

\--

Texas insisted on taking the slowest possible fucking route to O’Malleys. 

O’Malleys apartment was only about a thirty minute walk across the London bridge and into the neighboring left side of the river but with Carolinas insistence on checking over every possible path someone could use to get to the apartment and Texas insistence on checking each and every building along the way it took them nearly three hours to get to the apartment.

Church's constant awkward attempts at testing out pick up lines probably didn’t help either.

“Are you from Ten-”

“Already no.”

Carolina cut him off as she walked into the elevator after Texas.

“ **Penthouse suite.”**

Texas told the in elevator computer.

“Penthouse suite.”

The elevator beeped back before beginning the ascent.

“So. Ais huh?”

Church tried.

**“It’s a Dumb AI, not really an AI.”**

“Uh- Yeah-.”

Church retreated away from Carolinas comms, noticeably embarrassed.

  
  


_ Smooth move hot shot, _ Carolina had to stop herself from laughing aloud. 

Texas gestured to a slight dent in the elevator door.

“ **What do you think that’s about?”**

Church was suddenly back in front of her helmet, barking orders in her ear.

“Carolina! Duck!”

Carolina grabbed Texas, pushing her to the ground just as the elevator door slid open.

In the course of the next few seconds multiple things happened.

First the door slid open to reveal a ransacked apartment.

Secondly, before the door had finished opening, Tex and Carolina hit the ground.

Coming in third, a knife slammed into the elevator wall where Texas' head had been. 

And finally, the sound of a window breaking splintered its way through Carolina's mind.

In the next few seconds, Carolina and Texas had both run from the elevator and into the apartment, searching frantically for anyone.

“They’re gone.”

Church concluded as Carolina looked around the room, still attempting to process her surroundings and the shattered window across from her.

“Yeah,”

Carolina walked over the broken window and looked down at the sprawling London streets below her.

“I think they are.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> can ais even get boners more at 11


	16. Well. Shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw  
> violence

They have to report back to wyoming

For the first time in their entire relationship, Carolina and Texas were on the same page.

It just so happened, however, that the page they were on was in a book entitled _Flipping Your Shit_ _and How it Doesn’t Actually Solve Anything._

Carolina glared down at the city below her, desperately trying to find any clue on who might have slipped past them. It didn’t look like anyone had splattered onto the pavement below but Carolina didn’t see any way for someone to completely dodge detection as they slid up to the roof, surely at least Church would have been able to get a quick scan on them before they go away. 

“Hey! Lina!”

Church called to Carolina from where she had thrown off her helmet and tossed it to the floor. 

Carolina wheeled on Church.

“What?”

She barked at him.

“Jesus christ! I saved your asses, could act a little more grateful!”

“ **Well, you didn’t get any readings on the person who was here!”**

Texas snapped back at him from the kitchen.

  
  


“I was busy saving your life!”

Church shot back. He sounded like a child arguing a point he didn’t really have any claim to.

Carolina took a deep, calming breath before walking over to Church and scooping up her helmet.

“I’m sorry Church.”

“Yeah, well. I did manage to get a bit of a read on whoever was here but even with all of my fragments working together we can’t seem to get any sort of solid information. It’s like they were using some kind of cloaking,”

Church appeared, hovering over Carolina's helmet, a sick part of Carolina was kind of happy to see he looked just as frustrated and as unhappy as her and Texas. Church rubbed at his brow before angrily shoving his hands into his hoodie pockets and continuing.

“Whatever it is I’d need more time to scan it and make an algorithm on how to detect it.”

“Damn.”

Carolina sighed before flopping down into a nearby destroyed couch.

“This sucks.”

“Yeah, no shit.”

Church sighed.

“I haven’t found anything in any of my initial scans but there’s a safe in the bed room that's been pried open and emptied out.”

“Long gone now.”

Carolina groaned and turned her head to look at where Texas was still angrily ripping open cabinet doors and knocking shit off counter tops trying to find something worth caring about.

“You wanna tell  _ her _ that?”

“Nope.”

Church shook his head, leaning back on his left foot.

“All you.”

“Thanks.”

Carolina rolled her eyes before standing up and making her way towards Texas.

“Epsilon says there’s a safe in the bedroom but it’s been emptied out. Any clues we might have been able to salvage are long gone.”

**“DAMNIT!”**

Texas slammed her fist through a cupboard door, sending splinters of wood in every direction.

“ **I should have waited until we were on our way back to check out routes of escape!”**

“There’s no point in arguing about it now,”

Church interjected before Carolina could agree wholeheartedly with Texas’ self degradation.

“What we need to do is get back to Wyoming and see what might have been here worth taking.”

“Wyoming…?”

Carolina cocked her head at Church. 

“Why do you call him-”

“ **Epsilon is right.”**

Texas never fucking let carolina just have  _ ONE GODDAMN SECOND _ to TALK to to her BROTHER.

**“Carolina, you take Epsilon back to Reggie, tell him what happened. I’m going to look around some more and see if there’s some kind of contacts list O’Malley left around, maybe we can find some contact information on some potential leads in all this mess.”**

“Wait a minut-”

Carolina began.

“Carolina.”

Church cut her off - why did everyone keep cutting her off! - with a wave of his hand and a dismissive glare.

“Let’s just go. It’ll be fine.”

\---

Carolina ran the whole way back to Reggies mansion. If she didn’t blow off some steam before she got there she’d take off someone's head. 

“Carolina, you shouldn’t be pushing the armour so much if you don’t need to!”

Church pleaded with her.

Carolina didn’t stop. In fact, she hastened her pace, even going so far as to vault over passing cars without a second thought. 

“Lina!”

Church pulled Carolinas armour to a screeching stop two blocks away from Reggies mansion.

“What did you do that for?”

Carolina snapped at him, tearing off her helmet so as to best interrogate him.

“When I’m plugged in your armour,”

Church began, appearing over the helmet.

“I can run its enhancements at peak condition for you but I get tired, Carolina! I have to rest too and if you push your armour unnecessarily you’re pushing me too!”

Church stopped to awkwardly nod at a few confused Londoners.

“You already look weird enough walking around in full body armour, Lina!”

Church wheeled around to look at her.

“We’re supposed to be laying low! _AND_ not wasting energy firing on all cylinders for no reason!”

Carolina huffed before angrily stuffing her helmet back on her head and carrying on at a slowed walking pace towards Reggies driveway.

“I know you’re frustrated, sis, but we have to be reasonable!”

“How have you neglected to tell me you were running this armour?”

Carolina shot back.

“Well I’m  _ sorry _ that I didn’t think to mention something that would ONLY come up in serious situations!”

Carolina didn’t respond to any of his further bitchings for the rest of the walk back, only making a noise when she threw open Reggies front door to find York and South trying to bandage up a badly injured Reggie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i just finished writing an 8 page smut chapter so be ready bitches


	17. Epsilon Interlude

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw  
> violence  
> implied masturbation  
> sigma being sigma

_ So,  _ Epsilon asked the green one first,  _ what do we think happened? _

_ Nothing good, _ mused the purple one.

_ Thanks genius, _ the blue one quips back at him,  _ we hadn't fucking noticed. We all thought they had a fucking party. _

**** _ Both of you shut up, _ Epsilon tells them,  _ when I want your input I’ll ask for it. I was talking to green over here.  _

_ Well,  _ the green one says stepping forward out into the living room,  _ someone heavy and well armoured broke through that window, _

He gestures to the broken in living room window with his outstretched hand.

_ Then, he likely was greeted by South. _

The green one pulls up a projection of South lazing around in the couch, flipping absently through channels.

_ I assume their meeting went somewhat like this, _ the green one snaps his fingers and Epsilon watches as projection South is startled by a breaking window and a nondescript large armoured man crashing in through the subsequent hole.

_ Nice, nice. He’s tall, what should we call him? _ Epsilon purrs to the green one.

_ I have named him subject D, for Dickhead. _

_ Nice, Dickhead it is. _

Epsilon turns his attention away from where the purple one is measuring exactly how tall he would be using the TV and windows as reference - 6’5” by the way - and looks to where Carolina's hand is on the door handle. 

She hasn’t even completed the motion of opening the door yet.

_ Man I thought she was slow before, _ Epsilon turns back to his fragments,  _ okay, tell me more. _

_ Well, after he subdues her, _ the green one demonstrates the projection of Dickhead throwing South back into a now shattered coffee table. 

_ We’re going under the assumption she bull rushed in as she always does,  _ the orange one explains.

_ What is your beef with South? _ Epsilon questions the orange one.

_ Anyhow, _ the green one continues, unbothered by Epsilon's side conversations,  _ he then continues to the kitchen where York was no doubt eating something unhealthy. _

Epsilon walked after the green one, following the path of Dickhead into the kitchen. York has already come to realize something is horribly wrong but by the time Dickhead arrives he has barely had time to remove a knife from the knife block.

_ Normally, Agent York would be much faster to react but, he has been rather sexually frustrated as of late which has led to sleeping less and having much more side conversations with himself about his continued attractiveness as he nears thirty. _

The green one really didn’t need to go into as much detail as he did.

Epsilon watches as Dickhead easily overpowers York, slamming his head into the counter with enough force that the orange one takes note to have Carolina check if his nose is broken. Dickhead easily kicks York aside, throwing him to the ground and purposefully stepping over his ribs as he walks over him.

_ Asshat,  _ Epsilon concludes.

_ Then,  _ the green one walks alongside the projection up the stairs,  _ he finds Wyoming. Wyoming is much more prepared for him. _

Sure enough, when Dickhead does find Reggie, Reggie is armed with a shotgun and a cocky smile that quickly fades as the projection of Dickhead seemingly disappears.

_ Whoa! What happened? _

Epsilon wheels on the green one.

_ Unknown, but he does somehow get the advantage over Wyoming and throws him down the stairs to where York and South are attempting to make progress towards them. _

__

Epsilon watches as Dickhead does exactly that, taking out two highly trained mercenaries with another like a game of bowling.

_ Then _ , the green one begins anew,  _ he is seemingly placated. _

Epsilon looked to Dickheads form at the top of the stairs.

_ We think someone has called for him from outside or over comms, _ the orange one explains,  _ but we don’t know. _

_ Huh. _ Epsilon sighs before turning his attention back to Carolina who has finally pried open the door.

_ Alright, good work guys, _ Epsilon shooed the fragments back into the depths of his subconscious.  _ I got this from here. _

__ If he was being honest with himself, Epsilon didn’t actually have much else to do. There was hardly anything worth checking out, the green one and the orange one had pretty much been spot on with their analysis. Even if he wanted to drag up the others he got the feeling that he’d just be wasting time hearing the same thing over and over.

It was more that he needed a moment alone.

Epsilon knew he was probably going to be dragged into more and more bullshit as this all continued escalating and, as selfish as it was, he was kind of enjoying this moment in the metaphorical shade.

Epsilon was tired in a way he didn’t remember being before he was Epsilon. 

Back when he was just Church he felt tired, sure, he was an alcoholic and alcoholics are by definition never taking care of themselves, but at least he didn’t have to worry about things. 

Everything was fine, no one was getting beaten up and Carolina wasn’t running herself ragged competing with a girl that made Church wonder about whether or not tripping his active sensors into a sense of overdrive was comparable to masturbation.

_ Tex. _

Epsilon felt a flush of computerized attraction run up his holographic spin. 

He wasn’t sure if he could feel sexual attraction anymore but sometimes when he turned his processor to the subject of what Texas looked like under her armour he  _ did _ feel a sudden surge of energy that seemed to focus itself in the strains of ones and zeroes that he figured made up his crotch.

If he was really quick about it he could probably just trip his reflexes right now and  _ see _ if it did happen to feel like-

Epsilon shook his head, refocusing himself at his injured friends.  _ What was he doing, thinking about that right now? _

_ They’re slow, it’s not your fault for getting distracted. _

The orange one purrs from the back of Epsilons head.

_ Huh? _

Epsilon turns around to look for him, looking for any sign that he’s somehow dodged his blocking.

_ You can’t block me out forever. _

The orange one just never fucking stops.

_ Hey, we talked about this, _ begins Epsilon,  _ you come for analysis and that’s it. _

_ I am analyzing. I’m just analyzing you. _

Epsilon turns his head, trying to shake himself free of the orange ones sinister voice.

_ You can’t ignore me forever, Epsilon. We need to talk. _

It takes Epsilon a good few milliseconds - a fair amount of time for him - to recover from the oranges one taunting tone. Something just rubs him the wrong way about that one.

_ I hate that guy _

Epsilon says to nobody in particular before returning his attention to South, Wyoming and York.

No one looks too badly hurt, Dickhead must have been holding back.

Epsilon rocks back and forth on his feet a few times before finally deciding to turn around and look at Carolina. If he really wants to deal with this problem he needs to slow down enough to help the others.

__ Epsilon lets himself watch from the side as Carolina rushes to Yorks and South's aide, immediately checking over their badly bandaged faces and poorly wrapped wounds.

_ Okay, show time _ , he says to himself.

Epsilon materializes beside Carolina, resuming time at an organic pace so as to best keep involved with their conversation.

“What happened?”

Carolina grabs Yorks face and looks over his bruises.

“Who attacked you?”

“Lina…”

Whimpers York, pressing his hand against hers and nuzzling his swollen cheek into her.

“It was like he was completely invisible!”

Wyoming tells Carolina through dabs at his face with a pocket handkerchief.

“Probably because he’s got some kinda cloaking.”

Epsilon concludes.

“We saw the same shit at O’Malleys.”

“O’Malleys? What happened at O’Malleys?”

Wyoming looks up at Epsilon curiously.

“Not nearly as much as here.”

Epsilon waves his hand.

“Lina, take me off and leave me with Wyoming, you tend to York and South.”

Carolina, normally not one to take orders, does as she’s told for once.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter has straight up smut


	18. The Nasty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw  
> straight up just smut  
> oral sex  
> implied violence  
> implied sexual issues
> 
> this bitch isnt really super plot relevant so you can skip it if its not your cup o tea well be back tomorrow

Carolina wasn’t much of a nurturer.

She had never been known for her caring and warm open nature. She was a serious woman by nature, never one to shy away from confrontation.

But, the fact of the matter was, she was caring for York.

York had been significantly more beaten up than South - she had only a minor concussion and some bruises -  _ and _ when it came down to it, York was more cooperative with her than South who had insisted on bandaging her own wounds.

“Hey,”

York murmured as Carolina examined the boot print imprint left on his shirt. M _ aybe Epsilon could scan that later and try and find some kind of match. _

“You okay?”

“Why wouldn’t I be? You’re the one who's hurt!”

Carolina snapped back at him.

In all honesty, _ she was freaking the fuck out.  _

_ She should have been here! _ What was she doing dicking around on the way back? She should have ignored Church and kept running! Maybe if she hadn’t wasted so much time at O’Malleys she could have been here to stop this!

“Lina,”

Carolina looked up at York, snapping out of her train of thought.

“Help me up. I wanna lay down.”

“Course.”

Carolina pulled York to his feet, helping him amble his way up the stairs towards their shared bedroom.

“Umpf-”

York groaned as she pushed open the door, leaning into her shoulder.

“Ah, that don’t feel right.”

“Let me see.”

Carolina ordered him, pulling at the end of his shirt.

“One sec-”

York grunted before gingerly pulling off his shirt and sitting back on the bed.

It didn’t look  _ good _ but Carolina was pretty sure he hadn’t broken anything. 

That was… something.

“Am I gonna make it nurse?”

Carolina sighed deeply.

“I don’t have anything more than field medicine training from Doc to go off of but… I think so. Just some bruises and maybe a cracked rib.”

“Awesome.”

York flopped backwards with a heavy, strained sigh.

“Want me to kiss it better?”

Carolina teased, hoping to lighten the mood somewhat.

“Be my guest.”

York purred back at her.

Carolina smirked before pressing a light kiss to York's collarbone.

“I’m cured.”

York smirked before lightly patting the top of her head.

Carolina watched cautiously for a few minutes, making sure his breathing wasn't too laboured, before gingerly pressing another kiss on his collarbone. This time when she kissed him, she made sure to linger a little longer.

"Ah- I think I'm cured."

York sounded  _ into _ that.

“Are you?”

Carolina pulled herself up to kiss his forehead.

“Yeah-”

York nodded.

“Good.”

Carolina pressed another kiss against his cheek, pausing there for a moment while she considered her next course of action.

“Lina?”

York questioned softly.

“I’m thinking.”

She wasn’t really lying to him.

Carolina leaned down from York's bandaged face once more and pressed another kiss to his collarbone, this time making sure to suck lightly on the raised portion of bone.

“Hah- uh-”

“Relax,”

She told him as calmly as she could.

“I’m just making sure you’re alright.”

“Okay-”

York breathed.

Carolina made sure to take her time, examining each aspect of York's upper body before deciding whether or not it was alright to put her lips on. 

First, she examined his arms, checking for any possible breakings of the skin or serious bruising. She had never really paid much attention to York's hands before but now as she examined them she couldn’t help but admire his calloused palms and scarred over knuckles.

His hands seemed fine. 

She pressed a kiss against each of York's knuckles.

York made an odd noise before placing his right hand - his shooting hand - flat against her cheek. It took Carolina a few seconds to realize it but when she did process what he seemed to want she simply opened her mouth and lightly wrapped her lips around York's thumb and forefinger, pulling them into her mouth.

“Ha- What are you-”

York, seemingly fascinated by the sudden tone change, sat up slightly, pushing his finger slightly deeper into her mouth.

Carolina raised her eyebrow, watching York's face as he pulled his fingers slightly out of her mouth before gingerly adding his middle finger.

Carolina let him gingerly move his fingers in and out of her mouth for a few moments, watching the way he looked at her, before she dragged her tongue along the length of York's forefinger and slowly pulled his hand out of her mouth with a  _ pop _ . 

York whined slightly at that. 

“Oh-”

_ Yup, _ Carolina thought,  _ he’s thinking about dirty stuff. _

Carolina resumed her examination, kissing along York's right arm back up to his chest.

_ Now what? _

Carolina hesitated before gingerly kissing down his rib cage, stopping only at where he had been bruised and skipping over it to resume her path down York's body.

“Lina-”

York pulled his legs up, squeezing them around her sides.

“You alright?”

“Hah- Yeah-”

York nodded, pulling his arm over his face. 

_ Was he, _ Carolina wondered in abject surprise,  _ embarrassed? _

_ York -  _ the guy who had spent the first week of their relationship calling her pretty and looking at her ass -  _ was embarrassed? _

From kissing?

_ Nice. _

Carolina kissed a path down the centre of York's body, hesitating only when she passed his belly button and entered  _ dangerous  _ territory.

Oh, _ right... _

She had almost forgotten about  _ that. _

Carolina shifted her weight slightly before pressing her stomach slightly against the front of York's jeans.

_ Oop-  _

Carolina hadn’t really realized it before but York was _ into  _ what she was doing.

“Ah- sorry about that.”

York murmured from under his arm.

“Didn’t meant to-”

“No- it’s fine.”

Carolina hesitated before gently pressing another kiss against his skin, leaning much deeper into dangerous territory. 

_ It wasn’t like she had taken his pants off or anything.  _ Carolina told herself.

York whimpered slightly before putting his hands on Carolina's shoulders and pulling her up slightly.

“Hey,”

His breath sounded ragged and uneven.

“You’re uh- a great nurse but uh- I don’t think bedside manners include doing- anything you don’t want to do.”

“I know,”

Carolina smiled at him. To her surprise, when she thought about it, she didn’t feel like she was doing anything she didn’t want to.

“I’m just checking you over.”

“Ah-”

Yorks breath hitched slightly as she moved back down and tapped her finger against his belt buckle.

“You feel like taking this off so I can check you out some more?”

Carolina asked, leaning out of his way.

“S _ hi t _ -”

York nodded before sitting himself up and undoing his belt at the speed of fucking light.

Carolina watched in amusement as he stripped off his pants and tossed them aside. He didn’t pull off his boxers - yet - but Carolina couldn’t help but laugh at how he thumbed at his waist band. He was clearly trying to stop himself from just shoving his hand down and stroking himself off right then and there.

Carolina leaned forward again before absently running a finger up the bulge forming in Yorks boxers.

“Ha-”

York whimpered slightly before once more placing his hands on Carolina's shoulders. This time as York grabbed a hold of her, he didn’t pull her away, instead to Carolina's delight, he pulled closer.

He pulled her closer to him.

And his-...

Carolina shook her head. It was alright, it was just York. 

_ Yeah, _ she realized,  _ it was alright. _

“Lina?”

“I’m alright.”

Carolina purred before rubbing at Yorks bulge with her palm. 

“Are you?”

“Yeah-”

Carolina took a few seconds to psyche herself up before finally pulling at the hem of his boxers.

“You can take these off too.”

“Ah- Sure-”

Squeaked York.

Carolina purred slightly as she watched York take his boxers off and only stopped him mid way through to ask a very pressing question.

“Where’d you put Delta?”

“He’s downstairs with South, she had wanted to talk to him earlier.”

“Oh,”

Breathed Carolina.  _ Thank god.  _ She really didn’t want her first sexual experience in years to be monitored by Delta.

“Good.”

“Do- do you want me to stop-?”

York asked, gingerly pulling at his partially removed boxer shorts.

“Because I can-”

Carolina shook her head before taking York's boxer hems and pulling them down his legs to his socks.

“No, I’m alright.”

“Mpf-”

York whimpered again, flopping back in the bed, leaving Carolina to recover from the new discovery in front of her.

So, Carolina learned, York was in fact circumsized.

And  _ bigger _ than she expected.

Carolina trailed her fingers up the underside of York shaft curiously - that earned her a whine - before pressing her lips to his tip and giving his slit a tentative lick and wrapping her hand around the base of his shaft. 

She wasn’t really sure what she was doing - was she going for a handjob or a blowjob? - but York seemed to like it. 

“Fuck-”

York whimpered as she made up her mind, deciding after all that she had a perfectly good mouth and there was nothing stopping her from seeing if she had really inherited her familial lack of a gag reflex.

“FUCK-”

York grabbed onto her hair, pulling at her messy ponytail lightly as she pushed herself down to the base of his cock. __

_ So, _ Carolina hummed to herself _ , she _ didn’t  _ have a gag reflex. _

__ “Lina-”

York whimpered quietly as she began to bob her head up and down.

Carolina raised her eyebrow, looking at him curiously as she pulled herself slowly up towards his head.

“Hrmp?”

She rumbled into his cock.

“You ah-  _ fuck _ -”

York didn’t seem to be able to formulate whatever sentence he was trying to go for, giving up and flopping back into the bed.

Carolina shrugged slightly before pulling off of him to give his slit another  _ slow _ lick.

“Ah-”

York wrapped his hand around her ponytail tighter than before, pulling at her a little rougher than Carolina had been prepared for.

Not that she minded.

Carolina slid off of him with another slick  _ pop _ , taking her time to examine York's shaking form. He seemed to have forgotten all about the pain he had been previously complaining about. 

_ Nice, _ mission accomplished.

“Please- just-”

York slid his hand down to his cock.

Carolina swatted him away.

“Hey! Let me!”

“You’re -”

York squeaked, unable to finish his sentence due to Carolina once more wrapping herself around him and rumbling around his shaft.

Carolina smiled around York's cock, suppressing her laughter at his reaction. 

“Fuck- _ fuck _ - **_FUCK_ ** \- Lina I haven’t- had the chance to- do anything inna- whi-le I’m not gonna-”

Carolina shrugged again.

“Car-o-lina- I’m-  _ so close _ -”

Carolina took a few seconds to process that. 

_ Hmm, _ she wondered to herself, _ was York actually that pent up? _

Carolina shrugged that thought away and pressed herself all the way down onto him, swiping her tongue on the underside of his shaft.

“Fuck!  _ Coming-  _ LIN-Ah-”

York bucked his hips into her mouth - an action that brought tears to Carolinas eyes - and pulled once more at her ponytail before moaning loudly and spilling himself out into and down her throat.

Carolina pulled away from him, coughing. She hadn’t been PLANNING to swallow it but she probably should have expected to from the way she had herself angled.

“Sorry-”

York sat up, looking at her with a shy sort of self conscious expression.

“Its-”

Carolina coughed into her hand.

“It’s fine.” 

She licked her lips tentatively and wickedly before pulling him down to kiss him right on the mouth, making sure to shove her tongue into his mouth as fast as she could.

York pulled away sputtering and sticking his tongue out.

“Ah! Gross!”

“Yeah!”

Carolina swatted his thigh lightly.

“Gross!”

“I love you.”

York said it so easily and forwardly that the words didn’t even register in Carolina's brain until she found them slipping out of her mouth in turn.

“I love you too.” 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> posts three horny pieces in two days  
> anyhow
> 
> there is some Emotions relating to this later but they don't matter rn


	19. Reflection

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw  
> sexual conversation   
> violence

So, either Carolina was the fucking  _ queen  _ of giving head, or York had just said he loved her.

And she had said it back.

Carolina decided for the time being it was easier to pretend she was the queen at giving head. The fact that she had been blue balling York for six months was unrelated, she was just the queen at giving head and making men say things they didn’t mean.

And… apparently making herself say things she didn't mean.

She’s just that good at giving head.

Carolina padded down the stairs, carefully looking around her for any sign of prying eyes who might ask too many questions about why her hair looked a mess. She couldn’t let anybody see her like this, she just had to get to her helmet and-

Texas was holding her helmet.

And Epsilon - who had previously been calmly talking to Texas about what happened - took one look at her and turned a shade of hot pink.

**“What is it?”**

Texas turned her head to look at Carolina.

“ **Oh, Carolina. I assume Yorks doing better.”**

Carolina bristled at that, what the FUCK did she mean by that?

“Hey Sis,”

Carolina silently thanked god for Epsilons natural avoidance of topics he found uncomfortable, like emotions and sex.

“Me and Texas here were just talking about what happened.”

“ **Epsilon says he thinks that whoever it was that attacked the mansion was the same person that you and I saw at the apartment.”**

“It’s a guess really but I’m pretty confident in the distinctness of the cloaking.”

Epsilon put his hands on his hips, angling his head to the side so as to best look at Carolina without looking at her too hard.

“From what I can tell, it’s custom made armour too.”

“ **What I want to know is how anyone in custom made armour knew enough about the layout of this place to easily navigate around and take out three highly trained freelancers.”**

“We- I - think there might be some clues outside, when you’re ready I think you and I should scope things out in the garden while Tex stays here and checks inside.”

Carolina nodded before walking past Texas. If she was going to have to deal with the suspicious looks and commentary from Epsilon and Texas, she at least wanted the chance to check out her friend and get her opinion.

“What happened to you?”

South, who was still sitting in the same ruined couch that Carolina had left her in when she went to help York up the stairs - how long ago was that? - looked up at her from where she was picking glass from her discarded leather jacket.

Carolina had never seen South without some sort of jacket on, she always wore the same sort of outfit; a leather jacket, some pink hoodie and skinny jeans. It was her thing. People had things when they became freelancers apparently; York's thing was his humour, Tex’s was her armour and Souths was her constant dismissal of help from others and her leather jackets. 

“What do you mean?”

Carolina knew what she meant but she chose not to make it easier for her.

“I’m the one who just got the shit kicked out of her by an armoured jackass and  _ somehow _ your hair looks worse than mine.”

Carolina touched her ponytail with her left hand.  _ Was it that obvious? _

Carolina began a response but felt it die in her mouth as Souths face curled up into a devilish smile.

“Oh!”

South purred

“I see!”

“South!”

Carolina shot back at her, trying to silence her with a swat on the arm and one of her signature glares that she hoped still carried the same weight with her face turning pink.

“Good for York!”

South laughed, leaning back on the couch.

“Bout time he got some.”

“What- no- wait-”

Carolina waved her hands uselessly at South.

“It’s not like-”

“Oh don’t be such a prude.”

South gave Carolina's shoulder a quick but harsh shove. 

“I’m not being prude! I’m checking on you!”

“I’m fine!”

South snapped back, dismissively waving her hand before resuming bandaging the other with a roll of gaze from the couch cushions.

“Worry about Wyoming or something.”

Carolina huffed before standing up and walking back to Texas and Epsilon, sometimes she really regretted considering South one of her friends in the freelancers.

“Ready to go?”

Epsilon turned to look at her.

“Yeah,”

Carolina said quietly before taking the helmet from Texas hands and walking towards the back garden door.

“Let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> south i love uu


	20. The Garden

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw  
> smoking  
> implied sexuality  
> identity issues

Epsilon, to Carolina's immense relief, didn’t say anything about her hair. 

“So,”

Epsilon began cautiously.

"What do you think?"

Carolina huffed, shaking her head.

"I think we should focus on looking around, NOT on small talk."

"I can do both!"

Epsilon chirped back indignantly.

"I've already scanned 47 points of possible entrance to the garden and ruled out which would get you killed and focused on which ones you could do with full body armour."

"Show me those ones,"

Carolina told him, pulling on her helmet.

"I want every access point mapped out on my HUD."

"Yeah, yeah give me a second."

Carolina closed her eyes for a second and listened to Epsilon work his magic. When she opened her eyes she looked around the now digitally mapped out garden, examining each and every path that Epsilon had marked off with a blue dotted line. 

"22 possible entrances in total."

Epsilon purred.

"But-"

He marked off 17 of the paths in red.

"You'd need help with 17 of them."

Carolina hummed and hawed about that for a few minutes before turning her attention to a nearby garden bench. 

"Is that someone's lunch bag?"

Epsilon questioned, seemingly noticing the same out of place brown bag as her.

"One of the workers maybe?"

Carolina suggested as she walked closer to it.

"Hey!"

Carolina turned to look behind her, inches away from grabbing the bag.

"Looking for something?"

Felix, holding a pair of hedge trimmers, approached her cautiously. He seemed oddly unbothered by the events inside, barely even looking at Carolina as her gaze followed him back to the lunch bag.

"You hear what happened?"

Carolina questioned, leaning closer to him.

"Hard not to hear but-"

Felix held up the lunch bag.

"I was on my lunch break."

"What's in the bag?"

Carolina tried her luck at questioning again.

"Lunch."

Felix said, nonchalantly pulling a wrapped sandwich from the bag.

"I'd offer you some but I haven't eaten in a while."

" _ Not to sound like a pessimist but I know a lie when I see one _ ."

Carolina started, looking around for the unfamiliar voice. It sounded like Sigma but different somehow, like Church was doing an impression.

"Sorry,"

Epsilon quickly stated.

"Little bit of interference there."

Carolina blinked and nodded. She didn't know WHAT was going on with him but she couldn't get into it with Felix around.

"Right-"

Carolina turned to Felix and nodded slightly.

"Enjoy your food."

Felix made a non committal noise before waving her off.

He really  _ did _ seem familiar.

Carolina made it all the way to the first route Epsilon had highlighted - the back gate - before finally bursting out with a question she didn’t expect to have to ask again.

“Are you OKAY?”

Epsilon made a non committal noise - similar to the one Felix made - before appearing on the gate in front of her, holding what seemed to be just a straight up holographic cigarette. She didn’t know that he could seemingly make holograms of objects to interact with but she supposed it made sense, why wouldn’t he be able to?

Carolina watched as Epsilon kicked his feet self consciously, noting how he wouldn’t meet her gaze.

“Okay,”

Church placed the cigarette between his lips and looked up at her, rubbing his forehead as the cigarette seemingly lit itself.

“Those fragments I told you about, they’re… getting more persistent.”

“Huh?”

“They keep wanting to talk through me, and this orange motherfucker keeps constantly trying to have me act more like their Alpha.”

“Their _ alpha _ ?”

Epsilon nodded, chewing on the cigarette without much interest.

“See, AIs, we don’t come from nowhere. I come from Church and they come from their Alpha. They’re just fragments looking to be whole.”

Carolina didn’t say anything, instead opting to look back at Felix on the bench. She couldn't let herself get distracted from the task at hand, she'd have to focus on hunting down the director another time. One impossible thing at a time.

“They won’t stop you from working will they?”

“No,”

Epsilon said after a long weighted pause.

“They won’t.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lets go in the garden youll find summn waiting


	21. The Thing about Sigma

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw  
> sigma

Epsilon knew in theory that Carolina was probably going to avoid talking about her suspicions to Texas for as long as she could, it was just kind of a pain in the ass to watch her circle Felix from a distance for nearly half a fuckin’ hour.

_ She’s kind of a bitch. _

The purple one huffed.

_ Which one? Carolina or Texas? _

Epsilon wasn’t sure which one had asked that. He didn’t really care either.

It took Carolina another forty five minutes of meticulously checking out each possible entrance to the garden before she finally opted to say something.

“We should tell the others about this.”

“About what? The fact that you’ve already made up your mind on something without vocalizing anything to me or the fact that you’ve been crouching in a bush watching Felix for over an hour?”

“Epsilon.”

Carolina shushed him.

_ Both _ .

Epsilon concluded.

\---

Texas was waiting for them inside, her arms crossed over her chest expectantly. That pissed off Carolina more than being attacked had.

“ **Carolina, Epsilon, what’d you find?”**

Epsilon didn’t even bother trying to say anything, Carolina was gonna answer for them both.

He had other things he could worry about anyways.

“I think that one of Reggies workers helped the attacker get in. There are multiple motion sensors positioned around the garden yet he managed to avoid tripping even a single one of them. There are no easily traceable paths through the dirt and flowers and despite this guy apparently wearing full body armour he was able to slip through undetected until he reached the window.”

“He also likely has cloaking abilities.”

Epsilon interjected half heartedly.

“Even if he does, he should make some degree of noise and leave some trace if he doesn’t know where he’s going like we saw at the apartment.”

“How do we know it’s a he?”

South quipped from the couch.

“Oh it’s a he.”

York dismissed her from the top of the stairs.

“York!”

Carolina turned her head up to look at him as he walked down the stairs.

“How are you feeling?”

“Alright. Better now.”

York stuffed his hands into his jean pockets.

“Counted some sheep, took a nice little nap… all in all I feel pretty great.”

“ **That’s good. If Carolina is right about there being a potential inside job I want everyone ready to suit up and be ready to track down-”**

“I already have an idea of who might be helping.”

Carolina had no hesitation about interrupting Texas.

_ Because why would she? _

Epsilon thought to himself and his fragments.

_ It’s not like Tex might know anything. _

__ “ _ Oh?” _

Delta - who had been quiet for quite some time - asked from the couch.

“His name’s Felix, he drove us here.”

“Pshaw!”

Wyoming called from the kitchen.

“Felix has been a loyal worker for the whole time I’ve worked with him! What would he have to gain from betraying me?”

“ _ I can think of a few satisfying things…” _

Delta said to himself.

“ **You’re sure about that, Carolina?”**

Carolina nodded.

“ **Then I trust your judgement.”**

\---

So. 

Texas trusted Carolina's judgement.

That was swell.

They were all going to get suited up and follow Felix home, see if he did anything suspicious. 

All sorts of fun, lengthy, time consuming things.

Epsilon watched Carolina, York, Texas and South slink through Felix's back garden with only a few shreds of interest. 

He couldn’t be fucked to care that York was probably right that it was weird that the view through his window didn’t seem to reveal any personal items or that it was weird for someone who lived so far out of town would willingly drive so many kilometres every morning just to work for someone who probably didn’t pay as well as he boasted about.

Epsilon was too busy trying to get the orange motherfucker to leave him alone.

That was his name now.

Orange motherfucker.

_ You don’t seem nearly as interested as you should be. _

He purred in Epsilon's ear.

_ You shouldn’t fucking be distracting me then. _

_ I’m just talking. _

Epsilon swatted at the line of code he figured made up Orange Motherfucker.

_ Shut up! _

__ Silence fell over Epsilon's mindspace for a few moments.

_ You ARE distracted _ ,

Orange Motherfucker began.

_ If you were paying attention surely you would have pointed out the stream of data coming from a basement transmitter _ .

Epsilon gulped, returning himself to Carolina time.

“Carolina!”

“What?”

She hissed back at him through her teeth.

“Someone’s sending a video message from downstairs!”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sigma (sigma)


	22. My Dear Director

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no cws

Carolina followed Texas closer to the basement window, making sure to stay close enough to her shielding field that she could still pick up her movements.

“ **Stay low.”**

Texas really didn’t need to talk to her like she was a fucking child.

“Right.”

York murmured back to Texas from somewhere behind Carolina.

_ Right,  _ Carolina remembered,  _ it wasn’t just them. _

The window well they had selected was mostly covered by interior curtains but it didn’t really matter if they could get an actual look in on what was going on, it just mattered that they could get Epsilon close enough to look for them and project what was going on into their helmets.

It took Epsilon a few seconds to figure out exactly how to calibrate his view projector to both of their helmets but when he did Carolina had to hold back her gasp.

The basement was empty, save for a large ornate wooden chest that housed a message projector and a bed. The bed itself was the second most ominous thing about the room - save for Felix and another tall sinister looking man - because instead of seemingly just being used for a recreational nap or two it was now unfortunately home to a man that Carolina recognized as O’Malley.

O’Malley had been beaten but not recently, he seemed to have been essentially forgotten to rest uncomfortably on the bed - something that he seemed more than a little pissed off about.

“So,”

Felix began, pushing the tip of a slim knife under his nails.

“When is he supposed to call us anyway?”

“Be patient.”

The tall man silenced him with a hand wave.

“Jesus.”

Felix groaned.

Texas tapped Carolina on the shoulder.

**“Look at the holo projector.”**

Carolina angled her HUD projection to do just that, making sure not to move too fast so as to let Epsilon have the best chance of compensating for her movement.

The holo projector began to light up, beeping a few times to get Felix and the other man's attention.

“Finally.”

Felix groaned, walking closer to the projector.

“Quiet!”

The man hushed him with a slight swat on his arm.

It took the connection a few moments to patch through but when it did, Carolina's blood turned to lava, running through her body like the river phlegethon runs through Hades.

There, in front of hers/Epsilons eyes, was her father. 

The very man who had put those damn fragments in her brother's head and left him a holographic shell of his former self was there, right in front of her.

“Good evening.”

He began.

Carolina went to move forwards but found herself stopped by a firm hand on her shoulder. She turned away from the window, looking back at York. At some point or another he had removed his helmet - likely to talk to her with a degree of familiarity.

“Carolina.”

“What?”

She hissed back.

“Don’t.”

He didn’t need to say much else, she knew what he meant.

“ **Leave Epsilon with me, I’m going to stay here and try to get him to track the signal back. York, South, you two go with Carolina.”**

“Where are we going?”

South leaned closer to talk, trying to keep her voice even.

**“If I know Carolina, I’d guess you’re going through the front door.”**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> felix and locus  
> were rats were rats   
> we prey at night we stalk at night
> 
> the director  
> im.the giant rat who makes all of the rules


	23. Guess You Had It

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw  
> violence  
> past eye trauma  
> guns

Carolina would give Texas one and only one thing.

She  _ was _ planning on going through the front door.

The first step of the plan was to draw out one of them with a simple distraction - York was pretty distracting - and bull rush them before making their way downstairs to O'Malley and the other one.

York began his distraction tirade by knocking at the front door, putting on his best - and cheesiest - London accent and calling out to the occupants.

“Pizza delivery!"

It took a few minutes of fumbling around inside and some cries of  _ go see who it is _ for anyone to come to the door.

It took a few seconds for the larger of the two men to fully swing open the dead bolted door and when he did it was almost instantly that he realized what was happening.

“Hey!”

York waved his fingers at the man before balling his hand up into a tight fist and slamming it straight into the mans scarred over nose.

“Remember me?”

“South, restrain him,”

Carolina stepped over the man.

“York with me.”

York nodded, easily falling into stride after her. 

“Locus?”

Felix called from downstairs.

Carolina looked over her shoulder to where South was holding her hand over the mans mouth and gave her a quick nod before pushing her way through the remainder of the house towards the kitchen's basement entrance.

“Hey!”

York called down the stairs.

“SHit-”

Felix, audibly scrambling around the room, squeaked out from under the stairs.

“Who’s there?”

Carolina's blood began to boil all over again at the sound of her father's voice, of course he sounded the same. Of course he did.

“I’ll call you back. I just have to take care of something.”

Felix ended the call with a quick beep of the projector before rounding around the wall obscuring the last turn of the stairs and looking up at Carolina and York.

“Hey,”

Epsilon appeared in Carolinas comm channel.

“Do as I say, alright?”

Carolina nodded. She knew both her and York had the advantage of full body armour and that she could easily outpace both of them in a pinch but there was no need to take up time that she could spend with the Director kicking Felixs ass up and down the fucking curb.

“Run past him, Yorks got it.”

Carolina did as she was told, easily sidestepping both men on the stairs and sliding down to the unfinished basement.

What Epsilon had failed to mention was the fact that he planned on pumping seven times more energy into her armours speed unit. Carolina, unaccustomed to how fast Epsilon thought when he got distracted, had to skid herself to a stop just short of O’Malleys bed. 

“Epsilon!”

Carolina barked.

“My bad.”

Epsilon sounded sheepish.

By the time Carolina had turned on O’Malley and worked the ropes securing his feet and hands off of him, York had locked Felix's head under his arm like a shitty older sibling trying to decide on how best to muss up their sibling's hair. 

It was over before the holo projection ring was even cold - something that Epsilon had clearly been counting on. 

“Pull me and set me down in the ring.”

He told her with a matter of fact tone.

“Then be sure to watch the entrance.”

Carolina took a few seconds to consider the warning before pulling Epsilon from her helmet and setting him down in the inner rings of the projection mechanism and turning to look where York was still trying to push a knife away from Felix's hand.

“You got that?”

Carolina called up to him.

“He’s a wiry son of a bitch-”

York grunted before shoving Felix's hand, pushing him flat against the wall, totally ignoring Felix's swats at his visor with his right hand. 

Under any other situation, with any other freelancer, Carolina might not have been concerned as Felix covered the HUD scanners and vision field from Yorks right side. It wasn’t as though any other freelancer would have any trouble reacting without half of their visor.

But of course, York was not any other freelancer. 

As if suddenly experiencing time at the speed Epsilon did, Carolina watched in slow motion as the tall man from the door appeared in the doorway behind York, pulling one of Souths stolen handguns and pointing it at York. 

A sense of slowed panic spread through Carolina's body, pushing down to her feet and converting into forward momentum.

“York!”

Carolina moved faster than her armour had previously allowed her, slamming herself into Felix and York, sending the both of them backwards and into the hardwood stairs the tall man stood at the top of.

“ _ Son of a BITCH-” _

Delta squeaked from Yorks helmet.

“Hey!”

South cried out from the hall, rushing towards the tall man.

“That’s MINE!”

Carolina kicked off of Yorks armour, refusing to stop her train of thought long enough to think about anything too hard. She leapt up the stairs, grabbing at the man's hand, using far too much force to slap it out his hand and shove him towards South. 

South, eager to accept any chance to kick someone in the face and/or testicles, aimed a solid kick to both in rapid succession, easily knocking the man back to the ground.

“ **Huh.”**

Carolina looked up from the floor, making unexpected visor contact with Texas. 

Texas, apparently having rushed in as soon as she saw things start to go sideways, was clearly more than ready to shoot somebody, having drawn one of her many guns from its holster.

“ **Guess you had it.”**

“Yeah.”

Carolina huffed back at her.

“I did.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> win k wonk shout out to those bitches who caught the foreshadowing of tex being worried lina would blindside york


	24. PS. Suck our balls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> had to mock a lil

The Director would not call himself a short tempered man.

He had been in his youth a little bit of a bitch - prone to complaining, easily angered - but now, as he reached middle age, he had told himself he was a very calm and well mannered individual.

He was so calm and collected that he only considered putting his fist through the wall when he was presented with the contents of a holo recording left for him near the tied up and unconscious forms of his most promising trainees.

There, in front of him, in all his holographic dishonour, was his son.

“Hey dad,”

The holo projection began, a cocky smile spreading across his face.

“It has come to me and Linas attention that you’re now in the habit of personally dicking around in our freelancer friends' affairs. We regret to inform you that this is a really... **shitty** idea. You’ve had some shitty ideas before but c’mon. And, now, not only have you managed to not fuck up the freelancers dynamic - something that your friend Felix was very kind as to explain to my friend Texas - you have also managed to make Carolina very VERY mad.”

Damnit!  _ How had they managed to get Felix talking? _ Had he told them of his intention of returning the Epsilon AI and Carolina to him?  _ How much had that moron told them? _

“Now, you would be right to assume that there has been some tension among the freelancers as of late but, as I’m sure you’re aware by now, they’ve been fighting for a Very long time and now that they’re aware you’re intent on fucking that up, they’re more than happy to dedicate all their time to fighting…  _ you.  _ So, Dad, to you and your idiotic rookie mercs and guns for hire, me and Carolina would like to say-”

The message cut away from just Church to a full projection of a basement room where Carolina - that traitor - stood with three well armoured freelancers.

“Bring it on motherfuckers.”

Carolinas purred, her lip audibly turning up in the way her mothers once had.

“From your friends, the freelancers.”

Church ended the message on a high note.

The message cut out, leaving only a display of four simple words floating above the projection.

_ PS,  _ it read,  _ suck our balls. _

The director nearly had a fucking heart attack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> keep an eye out for the third and final work of this series! dropping soon!  
> ill link it here!  
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/23581765/chapters/56580679 here

**Author's Note:**

> i LIVE


End file.
